ZydoSEO - 6:13 pm on Jan 1, 2008 (gmt 0)

The <TITLE> of your page is one of the most important (if not THE most important) elements in terms of SEO. Not only does it appear in the SERPs but it also carries a LOT of weight for your ranking and for the SEs when they are trying to determine what a page is about.

IMO your title tags should be treated like your content as far as SEO, just on a smaller scale - keyword density is important, keywords/phrases closer to the top (or in the case of the title, closer to the beginning of the title) are more important, etc. In almost all cases, the title tag should contain 1,2, maybe 3 keywords and/or keyword phrases for which you want that page to rank with the most important keyword/phrase appearing 1st in the title, followed by the 2nd most important keyword, then, if applicable, followed by the third most important keyword.

If you don't think people are going to be searching Google for your sitename then it shouldn't be in every title tag. This is why people say only 'brand' sites should have their company or site name in the title tag. For non-brand sites, it will only dilute the keyword density within the tag.

However, if you still insist on advertising your site name in the title tag, include it only in the title tag of pages like the home page, about us page, contact us page... pages you're typically not ranking for keywords. If you further insist that it be included in every title tag then at least put it at the very end of the title tag so that the SEs know it is one of the less important things your page is 'about' (although in most cases I'd venture to say the page is almost never about the site, and more about the content or products you're selling).

[edited by: ZydoSEO at 6:25 pm (utc) on Jan. 1, 2008]