Using key phrases with common words in titles

Is it better to separate or combine the common words

[Sunset_Jim]

I live in a city whose name is comprised of three words which I'll call city1 city2 city3.

I have a city1 city2 city3, state travel related Web site. Web users searching for travel information for this area almost always use the phrase "city1 city2 city3" in their search term followed by a more specific keyword or phrase such as "hotels." This sometimes poses a dilemma with regard to how to use these keywords or phrases in key places on Web pages. For example, if the key phrases used by searchers were: "city1 city2 city3 hotels," "city1 city2 city3 motels," or " city1 city2 city3 condos," would it be better to use all of these key phrase terms in a title such as "city1 city2 city3 hotels, city1 city2 city3 motels, and city1 city2 city3 condos," or would it be better to combine them as: "city1 city2 city3 hotels, motels and condos?" How would Google weight these two approaches?

[2_much]

Proximity is a big factor for phrases, so ideally, you would want to work the full phrase into aspects of your website. I've seen some sites using the different types of phrases in the meta title (city1 city2 city3 hotels, city1 city2 city3 motels, just like that). Or you could add a footer with different ways of naming your home page, or breadcrumbs, or tour pages using the different terms. Basically, find a way to incorporate the phrases (togetehr) into your site, ideally in the anchor text.

[ciml]

Yep, proximity is a huge influence. It is worth considering splitting those titles up onto different pages, although recent changes might make this less helpful depending on how you're linked to.

[Beachboy]

I successfully use three sets of keyword phrases in title tags, where the first two keywords of each phrase are identical in each case. So far, on Google, it hasn't been regarded as excessive.

[Dave_Hawley]

city1 city2 city3 hotels," "city1 city2 city3 motels," or " city1 city2 city3 condos,"

Run a exact match AdWord on all 3 and see what the most popular is (by impressions) and focus on that one.

Dave

[benc007]

"Run a exact match AdWord on all 3 and see what the most popular is (by impressions) and focus on that one."

Dave,

This is a great suggestion. Have you had a lot of success using AdWords this way?

I will definitely look into this. Thank you.

[Sunset_Jim]

I have internal pages that address each phrase, e.g, Page 1: city1 city2 city3 hotels, Page2: city1 city2 city3 motels, Page3: city1, city2, city3 condos, etc., and have no problem with them. It is my index page that I would like to know if it is better to include all three keyword phrases in the title since this page summarises all three internal pages, or shoould I combine them as: city1 city2 city3 hotels,motels, and condos on the index page?

[Dave_Hawley]

Hi benc007

I'm like a kid with a toy on AdWords :o) I have had success with this, although in my case, more traffic doesn't always mean more sales.

Dave

[benc007]

Dave_Hawley,

Although you are targeting keyword phrases with high impressions, have you been able to convert a large % of the AdWords traffic into sales?