4 ms·

When I Google for "SEO actual title" this page is the first result. https://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=seo+actual+title&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 https://www.googl

When I Google for "SEO actual title" this page is the first result. https://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=seo+actual+title&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=seo+actual+title&ie=U...

BinaryIdiot 11y ago
That's a fairly specific search term though. I'm not sure I'd use that as the only evidence that it doesn't matter.
- scrollaway 11y ago
  It's really not that specific. It's not the only evidence that it doesn't matter, but if google can pick up on a 3 word query (one of them being "seo", an extremely competitive keyword) in <30 mins then it's safe to say hn is doing fine.
  - BinaryIdiot 11y ago
    Google polls sites that provide primarily discussions regularly. Doing an exact query match makes the most sense to do as step 1 of a query. So even if HN was trying to actively prevent this I think Google would still have an easy time.
    - dsp1234 11y ago
      exact query match You keep saying exact query match, but commenter above used 3 non-consecutive words out of the 12 words in the title, and did not use any sort of quoted search text. Indeed, it even works with just two words out of the title: https://www.google.com/search?q=seo+actual https://www.google.com/search?q=seo+actual The point being that HN's use of just the id in the URL has a minimal, if any, effect on search ranking.
      - BinaryIdiot 11y ago
        > You keep saying exact query match Only said it once =/ > The point being that HN's use of just the id in the URL has a minimal, if any, effect on search ranking. A single data point absolutely does not indicate whether the id in the URL affects SEO or not. Your Google search is context specific (to you) so I would certainly expect it to show up near or at the top. But what about those who have never touched that page or even have gone to HN? The more specific the title the better overall but none of this gives us data about the id in the URL being good or bad for SEO. Likely I think it's more of a UX than an SEO thing. But still don't go off a context specific, single data point to decide whether something is true in general or not.
        dsp1234 11y ago
        Your Google search is context specific (to you) so I would certainly expect it to show up near or at the top. New VM at aws, no previous Google searches. Still #2.

BinaryIdiot 11y ago

That's a fairly specific search term though. I'm not sure I'd use that as the only evidence that it doesn't matter.

scrollaway 11y ago
It's really not that specific. It's not the only evidence that it doesn't matter, but if google can pick up on a 3 word query (one of them being "seo", an extremely competitive keyword) in <30 mins then it's safe to say hn is doing fine.
- BinaryIdiot 11y ago
  Google polls sites that provide primarily discussions regularly. Doing an exact query match makes the most sense to do as step 1 of a query. So even if HN was trying to actively prevent this I think Google would still have an easy time.
  - dsp1234 11y ago
    exact query match You keep saying exact query match, but commenter above used 3 non-consecutive words out of the 12 words in the title, and did not use any sort of quoted search text. Indeed, it even works with just two words out of the title: https://www.google.com/search?q=seo+actual https://www.google.com/search?q=seo+actual The point being that HN's use of just the id in the URL has a minimal, if any, effect on search ranking.
    - BinaryIdiot 11y ago
      > You keep saying exact query match Only said it once =/ > The point being that HN's use of just the id in the URL has a minimal, if any, effect on search ranking. A single data point absolutely does not indicate whether the id in the URL affects SEO or not. Your Google search is context specific (to you) so I would certainly expect it to show up near or at the top. But what about those who have never touched that page or even have gone to HN? The more specific the title the better overall but none of this gives us data about the id in the URL being good or bad for SEO. Likely I think it's more of a UX than an SEO thing. But still don't go off a context specific, single data point to decide whether something is true in general or not.
      - dsp1234 11y ago
        Your Google search is context specific (to you) so I would certainly expect it to show up near or at the top. New VM at aws, no previous Google searches. Still #2.