Sheep are hurded in most easily when there is a lack of understanding. Thanks for the info Michael! I am working hard at not being a sheep =).  

Michael: Working hard here not to be led astray.  Thanks so much for your insight and willingness to share.

funny but true, it's a classic game. pixels, like well designed css pages are fun to play with.

It is safe to say that others have not tested this to the extent that you have to find out this information. I have never heard this before, great information. Test, test, test is always the rule.

I'm going out to find me a pickeled herring. After that I will aim to be the next friend you are talking to.

Thank you Michael. This is great info to know. Like you say, there is so much out there it is very difficult for the layman to know what is correct and what is garbage. Appreciate your clarification greatly!

So many thoughts running through my head...but here goes.

1.  on the 70 characters, I already knew it was based on width...I read that somewhere a year or two ago w/ someone using i's as an example (it was a different example vs. above).  Net conclusion for me: Write good titles with the most important key words earlier and it's still important to go a bit longer, do so....do what's right for the post.

2.  there's several things in yoast that don't seem completely right since it's following a "formula" and the it doesn't always seem like that is the best way to do things. For example, it sometimes seems better to write some synonyms rather than repeate the key word phrase over and over.  So, I have plenty of times where my key word phrase will have flooring in there, but then I write floors in key word description and alter order of words rather than repeat word for word.  As a result, I do have several posts that come up yellow rather than green and I have consciously left them that way since it seemed better for customer (and better for google, given semantic search, etc).

3.  Some people are either stupid or stubborn and won't listen.  Annoying, but happens.  It stinks too if they broadcast your trade secrets.  I think you know me well enough to know I would never do that.

more thoughts, but I wrote too much already.  good to hear from you.

Wow, this is fabulous advice. Thanks for it! (PS I love pickled herring!)

Who is Moz? I'm really not versed in all of this but I can hear your rant:) I like Kathleen too so I'm sure we'll be AR friends as well. All in a matter of time.

So much to learn and it's changing all the time.  Great insight!

Michael:  Then again it could all change next month, year?  

Thanks for the info, valuable!  I knew most of the stuff online was inaccurate since I enjoy some great rankings without employing any of that stuff.

Michael, Interesting!  I try to theoretically follow some of the basics, but mostly I find myself just writing and thinking let the SEO fall where it mays....I guess the 1000 drunk monkeys with typewriters theorem at work :)  Bill

Pickeled Herring huh? Michael you always cause us to think and grow - thank you!

Michael, Trying to determine who is right and who is full of it can be a full time job. I am a real estate agent, not an SEO expert. Some day I will pay someone to go over my sites and help me out, but until then I am on my own, taking advice from a small, select handful of people.

Great information here. I will have to read it and digest it. Titles can be my weak point, I know this.

And it is true, when you give people "free advice" they often trample right over it. Makes no sense.

I never really listened to those guys about character count, cos it was just too much to think of a catchy title and make sure it was under 70. I understand things better when told a story or examples being shown like you did with the Flash games, then the W example.

Interesting information. Thank you for posting it Michael. I spent the last three days educating myself on SEO's. Gives me something else to consider.

 

I enjoyed reading your post, now if I could only understand it all. But I did pick up one or 2 things. I'll be following you. (but not stalking)

Michael, great advice as usual. I'm gonna have to go back and read some more of your blogs..

Thanks for the advice as i was following the 70 character rule also.

Good insight and adivice, Thank you. 

You are over my head and I can only learn by reading blogs like yours and someday figure it out to some point. I do appreciated what you do and how you write. You are a good person.

Michael- I loved this presentation even if half of it went "woosh" over my head.  I use the same 1000 drunken monkeys that Bill Spear uses. 

Michael found this post on Google :)  Yes, it makes sense and appreciate the advice you provided. Glad to see this post was featured.

I must admit this discussion technically is above my head, however, I certainly get the point.

Nice post and nice lesson, Michael. Pretty clever naming your blog by the market position you want to own. I had to go to your profile to find out your name.

I have had many years working with data of many descriptions.

You are absolutely right about field lengths.  Some fields are long enough that the length of those fields is not an issue.

Very informative.  Thanks for posting!

Michael,

Time to stretch out those Blog Post Titles!!

Michael, GURU effect is what I took away as I think the value of what you know and do was proven in this post with tremendous data, support to back that up, facts to go with it and then the challenge. I did love the "if we don't pay for it do we think it is valuable".  Wow, that made me stop and think.

Michael, strange even AR post titles turns red after 70 characters - and as per Bob Strwart, that's what Search Engine looks for.

You always come up with great ideas - and are a sea of knowledge when it comes to SEO and Internet marketing. 

We are blessed that you share your expertise here on AR Platform. Thanks.

Michael - I would love to have Google enlightenment, but I fell like Google is always moving my cheese.

Mike,

I do use Yoast, and it forces me to think about what I'm doing when optimizing a post. Maybe I can squeeze a bit more out now.

Rich

I think the world is passing me by.  I'm sure there is value in marketing with these SEO subtleties, but frankly I have a hard time giving a d***.

Well Michael shame on the loose lips for sure and no I didn't know this but don't really trust Yoast because it doesn't keep up with the semantic search changes Google is making but gives us a guide...perhaps I'll add ruby black slippers to my title & see what happens.  thanks

SEO is fasinating, money making necessary to embrace or end up with hoof prints, tire tracks on your back as a real estate dinosaur lost in the the information moving shuffle. Manage your media stream well grasshopper. Do it daily and make it air and water, love and food, family important.

Thanks for sharing on the AR platfrom.  We all need a little help and want as much Google love as possible!

Mike- Great post. I usually dont pay attenetion to caracter count but maybe I should. I also am not using the plug-ins.. but will look into them.

Thanks Michael. I read your blog. I dug deeper into Matt Cutts blogs and watched the videos of Google changes. All I kept thinking about was a cat chasing its tail. Two years ago the circle was wide. But every month, the cats circles gets tighter. Google gets smarter, SEO gets refined. And on we go . . . over and over again.

Ah, someone who has actually done some testing on the number of characters that Google actually stores in their database.

Why stop at 100 characters?  I like the number 300, and maybe even more.

 

 

I remian "deer in the headlights" and content mind you...I respect those that navigate into your arena however...Good intel for the ones that do

Love the pickled herring idea to test out this theory. I'm definitely going to try this and see how I rank.

Great article!  I wish I would have read it before I got involved with a US SEO company.  They played games and did not do what they promised.  I did a charge back on my credit card and in return for removing this I have in writing that they will refund me in total if they cannot do the job to my satisfaction.  They led me on for months - still unable to accomplish their job, finally said they were refunding me and that's where it ends - no refund.  BBB could not get a response from them.  I recently turned it over to an attorney.  What a mess.  What I've learned is that I will NEVER trust an SEO company at any price!

Michael,  Thanks for the shout out. We have had many discussions about "SEO experts" and experts in generral.  What really makes one an "expert" and in whose eyes.  We all learn from each other. What we read and what others tell us.  Yet, at the end of the day, too many are taking on bad advice as though it were "truth".  Reminds me of the song "does anyone really know what time it is ... does anyone really care?"  Where Google and SEO is involved, we better know and we better care. What we don't know can hurt us. 

Michael, I should have my husband speak with you. He agrees with your comments. Nice post.

Michael~ WOW.....Thanks for the wealth of insight! I love the info!

OK - this is a post that I will have to reread when my brain is functioning.  Great knowledge - not ready for it on a Friday afternoon.  Have a great weekend.

Thanks for the tips Michael, I have learned a little more about seo today.

This makes perfect sense. Sometimes I reduce my width in documents by unbolding, going to lower case, smaller font, or different font. I realize you can't change the width in the Google database in these ways but the concept still makes sense.

Michal I appreciate your take on the issue.  I never quite understood the 70 characters.  Your post makes sense.

Hi Michael, Thanks for the tips. I feel lost when it comes to Seo, but I am trying to learn.

Thanks for sharing this, Michael. I'm pretty good with SEO, but there is always more to learn. And thanks for doing all that testing. It's time consuming!

Thanks, Michael, that's good stuff.  I'm continually conducting SEO tests, and some of the results are really surprising.

Easily the most informative post I have read to date on AR. Thank you!

 

   Great, informative post.  I will be saving this for reference.  I especially appreciate the way you use your real estate knowledge to provide analogies and examples that everyone here on AR should be able to 'get'.  Thanks!  (Now, if I only could figure out how to 'Subscribe/follow' you..?)

 

Very interesting.

So, what you are teaching us is that measuring the acceptable length of titles in characters is like measuring the acceptable width of butts in cheeks. You are a smart one.

UGH...this stuff gives me a headache! But thanks for driving it in Michael! 

Hi Michael,

Wow - my brain hurts!  So much good information, just need to absorb it all...  Thanks for the referral to Yoast for the MLS plug in, that really helped me because I'm trying to figure out how to begin my journey into "Agent Press" via Wordpress...  Maybe you can write a post on your thoughts regarding Agentpress?

 

I love feeling like I should be doing this - no wait, do that, no wait... it's coming, coming... it's all changed!  :)

Your the best, Michael. Thank you. I do use Yoast too, and try to follow the 70 character rule. Not going to worry about it anymore. 

I don't like pickled herring! However good points to ponder.

I have Yoast plug in for my piggyback WP blog and am getting this on my piggy back wp . what does it mean?

You're linking to another page with the keyword you want this page to rank for, consider changing that if you truly want this page to rank"

Enjoyed reading your post especially (although off-topic) seeing the name of my AR friend Kathleen Daniels 
Have a happy day -
Lynn

Lynn B. Friedman sometimes the good paying clients get the short end of the stick while small business owners spend their time working for people for free.