This question has plagued me for a while. Most of you will be thinking that they are both equally as important and that I am stupid for even putting forward the question. But the answer is not as obvious as it seems, as I have experienced in some seemingly unusual cases.

For example, imagine you have two pages with the same page rank. You make an initial title tweak for both to adapt to the key phrases you’re focusing on before undertaking other onsite work and external work. This initial title tweak causes a leap in rankings for the new key phrases entered for one site, but not the other. This has happened to me quite a few times.

I think I have managed to put together an answer as to why this has been the case: it depends on the link strategy used to build the page rank.

If the page is having to rely on a large link exchange campaign in order to boost rankings then the anchor text has to be correct in order for Google to gauge the relevance of the page, as it is relying on a large number unnatural-looking links from relatively low quality sources. The anchor phrases of course have to match those contained in the title in order to validate Google’s impression.

A change in title will see rankings drop for existing key phrases taken out but will have little effect for new key phrases put in.

If the page has a few one-way links from trusted high quality sources then it matters less what the anchor text is, but the trust that rubs off on your page from a high-quality natural-looking links means that Google is more likely to trust your title as a strong guide regarding the relevance of the page. Therefore changes to the page title can have a much larger effect and can rely less on validation.

A change in title will see rankings drop for key phrases taken out but will see rankings rise more noticeably for the replacements.

Other people may have different experiences and have other ideas – that’s just my two pence worth.

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Google, Keywords, SEO, Search Engine Optimisation, seo tools