TOPIC:

Where do I change the TITLE TAG from HOME to something else? Where in the admin tools is it?

Meta Tags. These are the Title, Keyword, Description, etc tags.]High weight is given to the Title tag, so instead of having "Home Page" in the Title tag, you will improve your ranking by replacing it with text that includes the search term you are targeting. (i.e. "Lincoln County NM Toastmasters, Improve your speaking skills")[/b][/b][/b]

This is the most important thing we can do to get our site to rank higher...

Also, can we add a Site Map to the software as well?

Lastly, how I get rid of Multiple indexes?

Please always post your club number in your posts or in your forum signature so that we can find your website.

You cannot set the title tag--the system does that.

There is nothing in the system to add a site map specifically, but you may be able to submit one via Google/Bing webmaster tools.

What Multiple Indexes?

Hi Steve,

my club number is 4969.

My understanding, you are telling me we can't change the title page to reflect anything other than "talk of the town toastmasters club"?

It seems that would be simple thing to do? Can you all do for me? For Google, Yahoo and Bing organic ranking, it's the number one way to get a website ranked higher on a search engine, and of course the other would be a site map with lots of good relevant content.

Just to clarify, when you hover your curser over my web page tab and it reveals talk of the town toastmasters club, that is where I would like it to go out to no more than 75 characters with public speaking, toastmasters houston, leadership, speaking skills, presentation skills... or something like those keywords, for that's some of the ways a potential guest would search for us. There are not going to search talk of the town and if they did we would most likely pull us just bc of our domain name.

Thank you and let me know if there's a way to do this...

Mark

See attached file... which may help...

Silenthranch wrote:

Hi Steve,

my club number is 4969.

My understanding, you are telling me we can't change the title page to reflect anything other than "talk of the town toastmasters club"?

It seems that would be simple thing to do? Can you all do for me? For Google, Yahoo and Bing organic ranking, it's the number one way to get a website ranked higher on a search engine, and of course the other would be a site map with lots of good relevant content.

Just to clarify, when you hover your curser over my web page tab and it reveals talk of the town toastmasters club, that is where I would like it to go out to no more than 75 characters with public speaking, toastmasters houston, leadership, speaking skills, presentation skills... or something like those keywords, for that's some of the ways a potential guest would search for us. There are not going to search talk of the town and if they did we would most likely pull us just bc of our domain name.

Thank you and let me know if there's a way to do this...

Mark

It seems we are getting tripped up on semantics. There is no "title page", per se. There is a title meta tag, but the system sets that.

The key thing is to understand *how* the system sets it. It uses what you put in as the club name as the default title tag value. Change the club name in the admin console, and it changes the default.

Also, what shows in the banner/masthead at the top of the site can be set differently.

When you post on these sorts of things, keep in mind that while I understand technical topics, most users post terms that are not really technical topics, so I tend to expect that you are talking about something else, really. In this case, the only thing that tipped me off was that you mentioned title meta tag... most users would not use that terminology.

Steve,

In non-technical talking points, what I am talking about is having my club page show up in search results organically on the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing, which are the big 3 of search engines.

The organic search results spots on Google are below the sponsored ads / Pay Per Click campaigns, where there a 10 spots to rank organically on the first page of Google. Organic placement is extremely important, for around 80% of the time, that is where a searcher is going to click. Pay Per Click or PPC campaigns around 20% and I am being generous with these numbers.

For the non-technical friends out there of "Why is this important?"

The Answer; People who are searching rarely if ever go past the first page of search results, maybe the 2nd page if bored, but never on the 3rd and beyond. If your club ranks on the 3rd page of Google when someone searches for example Public Speaking Jacksonville Florida, well guess what your club will not be found. You will be in the Abyss.

Now, if someone knows the name of your club, for example my club Talk of the Town, then searching for Talk of the Town Houston, then you will see my club shows up in search results on the First Page! However, this is a given!

I'm talking about the person who doesn't know my club and may not know Toastmasters as well. They may search on the following; public speaking Houston, presentation skills Houston, Houston public speaking classes, and more... Well guess what, not only does my club not show up on the first, second or third page, Toastmasters International only showed up on the 3rd page or the AbyssI Try IT! In fact, no Toastmaster club from Houston shows up at all! Not good for marketing new members!!

Why is all this Important? It's marketing our clubs and Toastmasters International as well! It's about attracting NEW GUEST and eventually growing the clubs with NEW MEMBERS.

****Other Toastmasters, I challenge you to do a search of keywords or phrases of how you think someone would search for your Toastmaster's club, without knowing about Toastmasters or the name of your club.***

Marketing efforts for our clubs in the internet and / or social media space should come from several sources, 1) MeetUp Page, 2) Facebook page, 3) LinkedIn, 4) Twitter, and 5) Yes our webpage!

Therefore like the business you may be in out there or your clubs Toastmaster webpage, IT doesn't matter how pretty it is, IF it can't BE FOUND!!!

Now with the above said and I welcome Toastmasters out there to Google there clubs using "search terms of how you would think someone would be interested in knowing about improving public speaking skills"

That brings up SEO term. SEO is "search engine optimization" which is defined as simply making your website Search Engine Optimized to where not only can Google, Yahoo and Bing find your website, they are able to scan all the content on the site as well, which in turn is ow they rank your site. This is highly important for your website may have technical issues to where only a part of the site may be scanned therefore you may have great content that is never seen.

Further the search engines rank your site on several factors; the age of the domain name, the title tag, (what is displayed when you hover over tab at the top of a Google browser page), and good content.

From a Google search, see below... See below why I want to be able to change my "Title Tag" to something other than the name of my club! Now, it sounds like it's not able to do it then it is what it is... Thanks!!

Google search on importance of Title Tags in "ranking of webpages"

Title Tag

Title tags—technically called title elements—define the title of a document. Title tags are often used on search engine results pages (SERPs) to display preview snippets for a given page, and are important both for SEO and social sharing.

The title element of a web page is meant to be an accurate and concise description of a page's content. This element is critical to both user experience and search engine optimization. It creates value in three specific areas: relevancy, browsing, and in the search engine results pages.

and

What is a title tag?

Title tags are used to tell search engines and visitors what any given page on your site is about in the most concise and accurate way possible.

This title will then appear in various places around the web, including the tab in your web browser:

and more

Why are title tags important?

The title tag is the boldest, most obvious element in a search result and therefore a major part in the decision making process of whether a searcher will click on your result or not.

Are title tags used as a ranking signal?

According to Moz, title tags have “long been considered one of the most important on-page SEO elements.” And the closer to the start of the title tag any given keyword is, the more likely it will be to rank for that keyword based query.

How to write a great title tag

From an SEO point of view, the title tag should contain all the keywords you wish to rank for. And as I just stated above, the most important keyword should be at the beginning, followed by second most important, then finally your brand name.

****What the above is saying, the title tag, the closer it matches to what a searcher is searching for or "relevancy", the higher the site will rank! When someone is searching for Houston public speaking skills or something like it, ***The search engines are not going to look at my club's Title Tag which says Talk of the Town Toastmasters Club as RELEVANT to what they search for... Now, if my Title Tag said, Houston public speaking, speaking skills, Houston presentation skills, THEN YES!! My club site would possible rank higher for it's more relevant to what they are searching for...

The bottom line, I just want to improve the websites ranking! If it's not capable of changing the Title Tag then like I said it is what it is...

Thanks,

Mark

If you really want to improve your search engine placement remember 2 things, content is king, and search engines don't read text in pictures.

You need a lot more text on your index webpage and more webpages with text and picture content.

You need to always to answer the "W5 and H" if you want people to visit and stay on your site to click more links.

The only text you have on your home page is

To RSVP for upcoming Talk of the Town meeting, visit Meetup.com. Meetings are free to attend, so you can invite a friend, loved one, or co-worker.

the rest are images that the search engine cannot read.

Yes your are correct about the content, however having the ability to change the title tag would be big as well.

The club name is what goes in the title tag, by default. You are welcome to change the club name via the admin console, but I really would not advise that.

As far as SEO, Brian and George and many others here are knowledgeable about that and I believe we have plenty of opportunities to impact search rankings in the system.

You can set keywords, you can set page description text, you can set home page content, you can integrate the site with webmaster tools... there is plenty you can do. Have you put alt text on any of your images that you do have???

Do not presume that we do not look at or do not care about these things. However, the system is the result of a series of trade-offs to meet the needs of the majority of clubs using it.

If this does not work for you, then I would simply advise you to switch to WordPress.