Hyphens within the page title?

Is this the correct way for your title

[flanok]

I have read about issues with using hyphens with google. How does this relate to the title tag?

So has anyone any evidence of separating the words/phrases in the title tag. Here are 3 examples.

Example 1 title - title - title
Example 2 title Š title Š title
Example 3 title, tile, title

Which of the 3 examples does the forum readers think is the best option. Do you have any examples that when you changed from any one of these examples, your rankings improved within G.

Mark

[daveVk]

If you need punctution in your title, it is probably to verbose, keep it short and unique. 'Red widget' better than 'widget - red' IMHO.

If really needed, when follow good grammer rules, I know of no reason to do otherwise.

[decaff]

Why would you use hyphens in a sentence? (this effectively is what the title should be .. instead of trying to keyword stuff the title and separate with hyphens)

Show me practical examples where a hyphen(s) benefits the reader...

[steveb]

You mean besides basically always? How do hyphens not benefit a reader?

Hyphens in titles are very user friendly, so regardless of SEO they are a good thing to use.

[fishfinger]

Googleguy posted here a few years ago that hyphens are seen as spaces. So they should have no effect whatsoever. I seriously doubt that Google or any search engine factors full stops, commas or hyphens into their algorithms in any way. My advice would be to use whatever you feel reads best.

[frup]

Go to Google Video and click on a video. The <title> tag is the "VIDEO TITLE - Google Video". If it's good enough for Google it's good enough for me. ;-)

[bedlam]

Why would you use hyphens in a sentence?

You're kidding, right?

[a] compound modifier is generally hyphenated in order to prevent any possible misunderstanding, such as light-blue paint, twentieth-century invention, cold-hearted person, and award-winning show.

Source [en.wikipedia.org]

-b

[sandpetra]

I normally uses what google uses in it's own directory - can't go far wrong there....

Blue Widgets > Scotland

[decaff]

Hyphens in titles are very user friendly, so regardless of SEO they are a good thing to use.

I believe that "a" hyphen can help to seperate a main and support point in a title...
example:
Site Title - Short Description (with main phrase)

...but this thread is about using title-title-title...vs. title,title,title, vs. titleŠtitleŠtitle...and none of these quality has effective title writing...but certainly keyword stuffing the title

Of course, compound modifier's are one exeption to this and there are plenty examples one can find in the SERPs

[steveb]

there is nothing abnormal or kerword stuffy about
Title - Subtitle - Site Name

Titles are supposed to be titles, not sentences, not keywords. Pages often are about multiple realeted things that merit being called out in their titles.

[Patrick Taylor]

In the abstract, I think it's a pretty weird question to begin with. What makes sense, or doesn't, depends on each particular case. Hyphens and commas are just forms of punctuation, and I suppose the pipe symbol has become so on the web.

Punctuation does take up characters, and there's a recommended limit of characters for an effective title - not sure what it is though (somewhere around 60?).

[edited by: Patrick_Taylor at 9:53 pm (utc) on July 11, 2006]

[Hemanth]

I always doubted this. I'm using hyphens as separators in my forums. They seems to be just ignored by search engines but are user friendly.