The title attribute in Google

**John Scott** · 12-16-2003, 03:05 AM

The title attribute is not weighted at all. (Just FYI, ya know.)

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...ty+Web+Hosting

Quote:

Your search - site:www.handcrafted-art.com Designed By Quality Web Hosting - did not match any documents.

This has been tested over and over ad infinitum. Not once has a page been returned when the only occurence was in the title attribute of a link.

I, Brian · 12-16-2003, 03:58 AM

I've had a particularly troublesome page - over the past few months I've changed the title 3 times to try and improve its place in the SERPs. Tried single use of keyword with associated terms, then keyword once and alone, then keyword twice with associated terms. It was re-indexed 3 times - yet it's ranking has not changed beyond already observed background variations.

Conclusion - title by itself it not so important.

However, how it is weighted in conjunction with other factors would be more complicated to determine.

I also strongly suspect that themes are an issue that SEO should be addressing now, and that title tags could play a significant role in that.

I, Brian · 12-16-2003, 09:19 AM

ADDENDUM:

The SERPs updated today for the term "Apocrypha" - the new title is listed, and I'm up to no.9 - my highest so far for it. However, the page is linked to from my signature, so it could simply be that I'm forcing it up with anchor text.