Do Position of Keywords in Title Tag Influence Google Position?

Because I might have an example of it happening.

[wrafter]

I have a three word string which I'm very keen to get to the top of Google, and I've had it move from about 200th place to the top ten. Right now however it's in 12th place.

Thing is, it dropped down to 19th recently, and by moving that three word string from the fifth, sixth and seventh words in my title tag to second, third and fourth words I seem to have moved from 19th to 12th. Is my theory sound, is this what had the effect, all in the space of about ten days, or am I incorrect, meaning it could be something else?

[webnewton]

Even if it works it has a neglegible effects on SERPS arrangement. It's some other factor that's triggered in your favour or else you're keywords doesn't seem to be too competitive.

[Robert Charlton]

Hi wrafter - Keyword positioning, proximity, and order in the title element (often called the title tag) are among the hundred or so factors in Google's algo that affect results... but yes, you are making a good observation.

Positioning in a title can make a difference for some pages on some searches. It's hard to generalize, though, from your example without considering a lot of other stuff too... how competitive a search is, what your inbound links are, what your page content is like, and how these all work together.

I recommend that you do a Google site search on WebmasterWorld for title tags and title element, among other terms, and do a lot of reading.

Here are two particularly good threads you should check out:

Title Tags: A badly written title will sink your site
How to sabotage your web site without even knowing it
[webmasterworld.com...]

Building the Perfect Page - Part II - The Basics
Developing an effective <title> element.
[webmasterworld.com...]

Definitely don't ignore the other 99 factors in the algorithm, particularly page content and inbound links.

Incidentally, welcome to the forums.