Order of a TITLE

Which way would be better?

[pixels]

Can anyone recommend which way the keywords should form in the title tag?

I also think all lowercase, don't you think?

1. widget.com - shop - cars - ford
2. ford - cards - shop - widget.com

Pixels

[takagi]

Hi pixels-san,

Lowercase or uppercase is not important to Google, but the word order in the title is. A keyword in the first position will help you more than the 2nd, 3rd or 4th position. In general it is better to start with the main keyword. However, if it happens to be a very competitive one and your PR is not so good, you could decide to go for a different order. Think about the following example. A company has 2 offices: one in Tokyo and one in Sapporo. Starting the title with Tokyo will improve the rank for a search for

Tokyo keyword

from #312 to #134. Starting the title with Sapporo could improve the rank for a search for

Sapporo keyword

from #56 to #8 what brings you to the first page. When you make the decision about the title, you must think about what search strings are likely, and which search strings you can do well by changing the title.

My 2 yen.

[HitProf]

I agree with takagi about the ranking imporovements.

As for upper/lower case: think of your visitors not Google. I expect a title to be well formed and use capitals in the right places (beginning of line, names, but not all over).

[Mohamed_E]

Let me second HitProf's point. Sure, the SERPs are important, but you must get people to click on your link in the SERPs! The title should attract the human user as s/he scans the SERPs. A spammy title that is nothing but a string of keywords will not attract a searcher.

Let me suggest that you read digitalghost's excellent Increasing Your Conversion Rate -- From First Click To Cart - Part 1 [webmasterworld.com] posting.

I am not saying that SEO concerns do not matter. What I am saying is that they should not be allowed to completely dominate the site design process. When is the last time Google bought something from your site? :)

[pixels]

Thank you very much all for your very helpful suggestions and information.

Message is very clear.

I think I will go for No.2. I am not at all intending to do spammy type of title. In fact when you've got 100's of products, it would be a headache to come up with cleaver spamming ideas so I will just stick with the product name or some relevant simple information.

Cheers everyone!

Pixels

[nancyb]

since no one has answered about the order yet, I'll take a stab. If you are trying to get the domain "branded", I would put it in the title - last. If you don't care about branding, then, I would leave it off most internal pages. This will give greater density to the relevant keywords in your titles.

A lot of this will depend on your competition, how are they doing it and what seems to work. As someone already said, high ranks don't help if it doesn't entice someone to click and visit your site.