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Consider that:

Since Arqade does not allow questions with the same titles, should I put the game name of a same-title question at the start or at the end of the question?

I'm asking because I would like to title this question of mine, (Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon) "How do I make a lot of money / dollars efficiently?" to be like this question's title: (Far Cry 3) "How do I make a lot of money efficiently?". The Far Cry 3 question has a lot of views (currently at 40378 views), so I reckon it's a good title, SEO-wise. There are also a couple of other questions where this is a similar issue.

I'm trying to avoid lowering SEO by putting the appropriate title to the question, i.e. by putting the full game name at the start of the question title (for SEO purposes as the game name will also be at the start of the webpage title) or by putting the game name acronym at the end of the question (so the question's tag [the game's title] will still be at the first part of the webpage title). But two different users have already edited the question to undo its title without specifying a custom edit summary.

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    Isn't an easier solution just to reword the base question itself? i.e. "What's the most efficient way to earn lots of money?" Better yet, if the game uses a non-standard currency (i.e. Cyber-bucks or whatever), use that term rather than the generic 'money' in your question title.
    – LessPop_MoreFizz
    May 7, 2013 at 13:40
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    @LessPop_MoreFizz That's a possible workaround. In this case, I'm thinking it's better to just include the game name's acronym in the last part of the question title. Rewording questions might not be a good long-term workaround when more similar questions about different games come along.
    – galacticninja
    May 7, 2013 at 13:49
  • @LessPop_MoreFizz RE: ninja-edit. I believe the game uses the term "dollars" for money. Since "dollars" is also a generic term, gaming-wise, I'm thinking it might not be a better rewording of "money". In other games with non-generic terms for currency, that may be good, though.
    – galacticninja
    May 7, 2013 at 13:54

3 Answers 3

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The solution would be to mention the game name as part of the question title in an organic manner, rather than simply pre- or post- fixing the game name into the question title.

"How do I do X in Y?", example "How do I use a custom resolution in SimCity 4?" would be an ok solution, whilst;

"Y: How do I do X?", example: "SimCity 4: using a custom resolution" would not.

In the instance of your question, kotekzot's edit would be the one that fits this recommendation.

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  • That weakens SEO, though. (See factors I listed in my question.) Putting the game name anywhere in the question will not make the game tag appear at the first part of the webpage title. And if you put the game name at the end of the question title, that will mean that it will also appear at the end of the webpage title. The game name should appear at the first part of the webpage title for optimal search engine results.
    – galacticninja
    May 7, 2013 at 14:11
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    yes you're right, it does affect SEO - however just sticking the game name at the start of the title is not the way we do things. Here is a question on MSO detailing this particular discussion further. Here is a more colourful discussion.
    – user27134
    May 7, 2013 at 14:14
  • I'm aware of that MSO post. "just sticking the game name at the start of the title is not the way we do things" What about my suggestion of putting the game acronym (FC3:BD) at the end of the question? It will make the question tag appear at the front of the webpage title (helping with SEO), while maintaining a more-or-less similar title, and at the same time will make the question title shorter.
    – galacticninja
    May 7, 2013 at 14:21
  • ...that's still putting the game name into the title just for the sake of it being there. As @LessPop_MoreFizz mentioned, if you want the tag to appear at the start of the question without putting the name into the title yourself, re-write the question so that it's unique.
    – user27134
    May 7, 2013 at 14:24
  • @galacticninja while it's not in the very first part of the title, it's still in the title and it will still get good SEO. And (good) question titles are usually short enough that the full title will show up in google, and relevant search terms show up in bold on the results page. I don't really think it's a significant negative for SEO
    – Ben Brocka
    May 7, 2013 at 14:27
  • @BenBrocka From reading that Webmasters SE post, it seems to me that important keywords (like the game's title, in the case of Arqade) if put close to the beginning of the webpage title, give a significant boost to SEO. It's also significant enough that SE started putting tags in the first part of the webpage title (to avoid being outranked in search engine results by scrapers).
    – galacticninja
    May 7, 2013 at 14:39
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    @galacticninja eh, considering Arqade's apparent pagerank microptomizing for SEO over UX seems like a pointless and harmful endeavor, especially since "in the title" is still an extremely important thing by itself. Assuming the title matches Arqade very often comes up on the first results page, often as the first item.
    – Ben Brocka
    May 7, 2013 at 14:45
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    @galacticninja The point of our tags-into-the-title being at the front was in regards to appending the tag inorganically - so if we're going that far in that mechanism, it makes sense to make the most of it. For a natural and organic inclusion, it isn't a significant enough impact to worry about it in that fashion. We shouldn't optimize for relying on the script - organic inclusion is pretty much a better experience for everyone all around.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    May 7, 2013 at 15:19
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Use terminology specific to that game, so the title would not be as generic.

This could be harmful in cases where some terms are rarely used, which would make it difficult to find that question by title through search, though if the question body contains a common phrasing (rephrased question), I believe, this won't be a problem.

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    In this specific case, that wouldn't really help. As GalacticNinja notes in the comments on the question itself, currency in this game is the generic "Dollar".
    – LessPop_MoreFizz
    May 8, 2013 at 11:32
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    This is more of a general advice for similar cases. Some games have very distinctive terminology that might help make unique naturally phrased question titles.
    – user1306322
    May 8, 2013 at 13:07
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My suggestion:

In this case, we could allow putting just the game name acronym (FC3:BD) at the end of the question.

e.g.
How do I make a lot of money efficiently in FC3:BD?
OR
How do I make a lot of money efficiently? (FC3:BD)

compare to:
How do I make a lot of money efficiently in Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon?
OR
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon - How do I make a lot of money efficiently?

Good reasons for this:

  • This is a workaround to the "question with the same title" Arqade restriction.
  • Since the game name is not in the question's title, this will put the question's tag, at the start of the webpage title, helping with SEO.
  • This will make the question title shorter rather than putting the full "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon" game name in the question title.
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    This feels like a stretch. Game names in titles organically are fine. Setting policy for something like this makes tags entirely redundant.
    – Frank
    May 7, 2013 at 14:56

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