1. 11 DISCUSSING
  • Raghav Thakur   Feb 24 2013   Flag

    Yup, my site seems to be displayed the way your post says,

  • Gordon Campbell   Feb 24 2013   Flag

    Interesting! I've had reports of it from around the world now so perhaps it has rolled out worldwide.

  • Ryan Glass   Feb 24 2013   Flag

    Good find. I've been trying to counter-act the "keywords to the front" push around the office for a while, standing firm that we're trading on the authority of our domain, not they keyword in the user's eyes. Neat to see this being programatically implemented as well. 

  • Gordon Campbell   Feb 24 2013   Flag

    I've not done any real testing on this Ryan but I've found that keywords to the front of the title may matter much less when it comes to rankings now. It appears that Google are showing more love for diverse titles now.

  • Rishi   Feb 24 2013   Flag

    If you meant to focus on your keywords and making the title relevant at the same time using Colons, thats a great idea, but not everytime.

    Using "|" and the one which comes up in Yoast's blog, the centered circle, are more effective if you see. Because whenever you search anything related to his blog, you will find that "circle" in bold.

  • Gordon Campbell   Feb 24 2013   Flag

    Rishi, it would also look odd if every search result was in the colon format. Will be interesting to see how it turns out.

  • Rishi   Feb 24 2013   Flag

    It will look odd for sure, even if you write perfect titles with colons, but most article headings which includes colons are most likely to be targeting keywords, or may not be.

  • David Gerrard   Feb 25 2013   Flag

    Ryan, I think that differs depending on the site. If it's a known brand, then you can somewhat rely on domain authority. If not, then the users will likely appreciate relevant keywords first.

  • Michael Cerny   Feb 24 2013   Flag

    There are no changes in Australia, it wonder if it is US release only. 

  • Aidan Rogers   Feb 25 2013   Flag

    I'm seeing it in certain verticals only in New Zealand - like travel for example.

  • Gordon Campbell   Feb 25 2013   Flag

    Interesting. I'm in the UK and have it here. Have had reports of it in the USA, India and South Africa so it might be on the way.

  • Pawel Grabowski   Feb 25 2013   Flag

    I am in Ireland Michael and can see this too. 

  • Hyderali Shaikh   Feb 25 2013   Flag

    Yep, I can see here in India too. But how it is a ranking factor?

  • Gordon Campbell   Feb 25 2013   Flag

    Hard to say Hyderali, it's early days but hopefully we will see some testing soon :)

  • Alex of Harford   Feb 26 2013   Flag

    If Amazon's tests have shown a higher CTR with their brand at the front of the tag it's likely because they're such a recognisable and trusted brand - it's beneficial for them to have their name at the beginning, whereas it wouldn't be for a smaller brand. The product the user is searching for would probably be more helpful.

    In your York Fitness example you searched for [york fitness] so it makes sense that the brand shows first - it helps the user see what they want. Even more interesting is if you search for [gym equipment and machines], York Fitness still shows at the start of the tag in the SERPs. I haven't been able to replicate this on anything other than your examples, but perhaps it is a sign of their increasing focus towards brands...

    Interesting spot but I wouldn't call it a ranking factor! :-)

  • Gordon Campbell   Feb 26 2013   Flag

    Lots of things popping up now. Just done a search for website Monitoring and Monitor Hub have it, they are a relavtively new company as well. I agree with you that for bigger brands this will be much more useful, but it looks like Google are doing this for big brands, small brands and for wee blog sites like mine:) Agree with you with regards to it not being a ranking factor, but asking the question did help with CTR;)

  • Bhanu Laxman   Feb 28 2013   Flag

    its really not working interms of rankings.. i have seen drop in rankings with this kind. CTR is always same and nothing new for the smaller brands.! anybody tried to get rid of it? and succedded? please share

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