I have the word "Official" in my title tag, because I read somewhere that Google likes sites with the word "Official". I'm just wondering if it does have any effect, because if it doesn't, I'll take it down, because having unnecessary characters in the title tag is harmful. One more thing. I also previously had an ampersand (&), and the same guide I was reading said those were bad. Should I leave that out too, or put it back in (because it saves two characters; and vs. &).
I don't believe that certain words make a difference unless you are optimizing for "Official widgets"... Maybe I am wrong... p.l.u.r.
I knew there was a reason why my widget site was not doing well! ** Quick! Scurry and add the word Official to all the title tags on widget site! ** I have to agree with Angelus. I don't think there are particular keywords that give you a boost unless the keyword is in the user's search phrase. I've never seen an ampersand cause a problem, but G does seem to prefer shorter title tags. Because most issues with Google algorithms are "black box mysteries", there are a lot of conflicting opinions out there. It's usually best to do your own testing and see what works with your site. I've seen too many people completely screw up their sites trying to add every SEO trick they can find.
I'd say official is a junk keyword, kind of like 'a','the','super','best', but sometimes in a domain name they might work, eg: www.thetop.com, www.thetop.net, www.supersite.com, etc. Then again offcialscores.com, officialresults.com might be good too. One thing I'm pretty sure of that you would want to keep relevant keywords in the title and <h1> tags ... But ofcourse I could just be talking out of my bum and be totally wrong.
Alright, thanks, I'll put the title tag back the way it was. Edit: I think ampersands look cool, especially in title tags...