Thread: Should page title and h1 be similar, and how?

This is a question for the SEO experts. Within each page we can have <title>, <meta description>, <h1> etc, and they all need to be different for obvious reasons, but how similar should they be?

I've had good success using the keyphrase in all three but with slightly different wording of surrounding text, but I'm wondering if changing the keyphrase for each is also worthwhile.

For example, which is better from option 1, or option 2

option 1
title: ... blue widget ...
description: blue widget blah blah ...
h1: blue widget...

option 2
title: ... blue widget ...
description: blue widgets blah blah ...
h1: widget is blue ...

The <title> should be optimized not only for SEO, but also to maximize CTR in the organic SERPS.

The Description meta tag shouldn't be highly optimized. It should be a proper English sentence. Read Google's Create good meta descriptions.

The <h1> tag should be optimized for SEO and for the page reader. It is the article's title, after all.

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

The <title> should be optimized not only for SEO, but also to maximize CTR in the organic SERPS.

The Description meta tag shouldn't be highly optimized. It should be a proper English sentence. Read Google's Create good meta descriptions.

The <h1> tag should be optimized for SEO and for the page reader. It is the article's title, after all.

Will I understand optimizing for SEO, but what does optimize to maximize CTR mean?

Originally Posted by elbandelero

Will I understand optimizing for SEO, but what does optimize to maximize CTR mean?

When your site appears in the search results, an end-user is likely to click and enter the site if the title makes sense to him. To an end-user, the title of the page gives an idea about the content available on the page. So apart from optimizing the title for SEs, optimize it for users as well. This way your CTR (in search results) will improve.