Question: We are just about to launch www.foodlubricants.co.uk (or www.food-lubricants.co.uk ?) and I am wondering how to do the title tag for the home page.
Shall I put John Sheard Ltd | Food Grade Lubricants as that would be our company name and what we are selling?

Shari’s Answer:

Title-tag content is very important because all major search engines read and place emphasis on the title tags. Furthermore, title-tag content is displayed on all search engine results pages (SERPs). Your title tag must serve two purposes. First, it helps obtain search engine visibility. Second, it encourages end users to click on the link from a SERP to your site.

Company name and title tags

Unless your company name is a well-recognized brand name such as “Sears” or “Nike,” then you should not emphasize your company name in the title tag. Primary emphasis should be on the keyword phrases that describe the products or services your target audience is searching for.

If you put your company name first, you are communicating to both the search engines and your target audience that you consider your company name to be more important than the products/services your target audience is searching for.

However, you might want to keep your company name in the title tag for branding purposes. If this is the case, put your company name at the end of the title tag, not the beginning. This is the title-tag content I recommend:

<title>Food grade lubricants from John Sheard</title>

Notice that I eliminated the abbreviation “Ltd.” In all likelihood, your target audience is not typing “Ltd.” into search queries. Therefore, it is safe to eliminate this abbreviation from your title tag.

Exceptions

If your company name is a well-recognized brand, then I recommend placing your company name at the beginning of the title tag. Because “Sears” is a widely recognized brand and people actually type it into search queries, placing the word “Sears” at the beginning of the title tag has a clear benefit.

Many companies have keyword phrases in their company names. For example, a company with the name “Choice Organic Teas” can put its company name at the beginning of the title tag because the primary keyword phrase “organic teas” is present.

When to emphasize your company name

Company names do have a place — in your logo, footers, and your “About Us” section. If you emphasize your company name in these places, you won’t lose traffic from people who type in your company name in a search query. They will automatically go to the “About Us” section of your web site.

Shari Thurow is Marketing Director at Grantastic Designs, Inc., a full-service search engine marketing, web and graphic design firm. This article is excerpted from her book, Search Engine Visibility (http://www.searchenginesbook.com) published in January 2003 by New Riders Publishing Co. Shari can be reached at shari@grantasticdesigns.com.

Shari Thurow Answers SEO Questions: Click Here For Free Answers