Title News

[ihelpyou]

I did not know this before but the maximum amount of characters that your title can be is 55.

This normally does not come into play as when submitting your front page, Looksmart usually just allows your business name.

If you already have a business name listed with them, you can add on the page title plus your business name. This is when you could come up against the title thing.

I wanted the title for this forum to be:
Free Search Engine Discussion Forums - ihelpyou Services

That is 56 characters. What they did was put ihelpyouServices

Like that. I then asked them to put the title like this:
Free Search Engine Discussion Forums -ihelpyou Services

Notice that ihelpyou is against the hyphen now. They said okay.

This might be something to know when figuring out your title if it gets to be too long.

[JuniorHarris]

Great information to know, since any suggestions for a title over 55 characters is subject to an automatic rewrite. Knowing that, one stands a better chance to model the title appropriately and have a much better chance for acceptance.

[ihelpyou]

Very good point about the flag for a re-write.

Make sure you count the characters! :) and your chances of getting the title you want will be greater.

[glengara]

Just to clarify, can you add to the title once listed or only if another page from the same site is already listed?

[ihelpyou]

I think I understand your question. Say your front page is listed with the title of:
DoDad's Bakery

A second listing title could be this:

Bread & Buns - DoDad's Bakery

You can have the words that describe the page in a second listing with the company name at the end.

[Blue]

And for those newbies lurking here ~ spaces DO count as characters.

[ihelpyou]

Good point Blue. You can get to 55 characters quickly if you are listing a second page of a site.

[blizkrieg bop]

I submitted my site (the front page) for the very first time to Looksmart a couple of days ago. For the organization name I put the name "Birthcare". When I got the email from Looksmart saying they were going to add my site to their directory they had my business name listed as "Birthcare". Now I'm assuming that this will be the title of the link. I didn't know this when I filled it out. I sent them a polite email saying thanks for the submission and that I was happy with the description but would like to know if they would change the title to "Birthcare - Medela Breastpumps". I made a mistake when I filled out the original request.
I guess I should have read this thread first! It looks like Looksmart will only allow the business name when submitting the front page, right?
They did put me under a strange category though. Not the one I originally asked. They added me to: "Shopping > Online Stores > Home & Garden > Babies & Children > Feeding & Nursing > Nursing Supplies". Home & Garden ??? Oh well. I guess that's OK.
BTW I also took the test from Zeal last month and submitted a page through them so I'm already in Looksmart for my non-commercial pages.

[ihelpyou]

Yes. That is correct. Normally your bus. name will be the title for the front page. Any subsequent pages will include your name, a hyphen (-), and a one or two word thing based on that pages content.

[Big Guerrilla]

Doug,

Do you know the exact maximum length of characters for LS descriptions? I have heard various reports that differ from LS's official position.

[ihelpyou]

Oh Yes. An editor told me and it is posted in a thread somewhere. I'll see if I can find it.

[ihelpyou]

ah yes. Way back on June 15th. Right after the forums opened. :)

http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=6606

I give details about everything.

OOPS. Hey BigG, this is the exact same thread I found. LOL Just scroll up the thread to read all about it.

[Advisor]

I think he was asking about description length, not title length.

Jill

[ihelpyou]

OH! :p

That I am not sure of. I am thinking it is 300 characters or so but I do believe there is no set figure. It all depends on the site and what the editor feels should be included to accurately describe the page.

[Big Guerrilla]

Thanks Jill, I was talking about the description length. I believe LS follows Zeal guidelines, which allow for a max of 170 characters. Still, I have heard of people getting away with more, which is why I asked.

I don't know if the better strategy is to try to push it to the max and get as many keywords in as possible (which is what I did) or be more conservative in the hopes LS doesn't mutilate the description and make you pay to rewrite it the way you want.

With the initial $$299 per url and $199 for the rewrite (plus whatever renewal fees you know they're planning) LS is getting expensive. Still, I guess you need it for the more competitive keywords in MSN, so what can you do?

[Advisor]

My theory where directory descriptions are concerned is to keep them as short as humanly possible while still getting all your main keyword phrases in. Opens you up to less scrutiny.

Jill