Title Tag Placement on Page

[garbageaccount]

I have noticed that on my competitor's web site their meta-tag comes right at the top of the html while on mine there is a tracking script before the meta-tag. Can this at all be affecting my rankings?

Grasping at straws perhaps but looking for any logical explanation for the difference in our rankings.

[KeithO]

conventional wisdom i've followd is
TITLE
META
LINK
JAVASCRIPT

[brian.mark]

Originally Posted by KeithO

conventional wisdom i've followd is
TITLE
META
LINK
JAVASCRIPT

I second that. Doing it any other way may devalue the metas (for those engines that use them) and possibly confuse the engines as to what your title is.

I changed a site from having the TITLE last to first and saw huge improvements in their rankings.

Brian.

[bhartzer]

brian.mark and KeithO are right. Put the most important content of your site towards the top of the page.

[wrmineo]

Yes, I always stick my js or other scripts as far down as possible if they need to be in the head.

Further, I also add description metas on any pages using scripts and place them just below the title tag. I've noticed that Google then tends to use MY description, not what they've constructed via their bot.