In my day to day work, I do web updates for a large broadcast firm. Basically, they have there own team dedicated to Search Engines and have direct contact with the likes of Google and Yahoo due to the site's prestige. Now, I've atteneded several talks by said team, and one thing they've always stressed is the importance of the title tags. They've told us to follow this model for all our pages: Site Name - Site Section - Page title. - Its fair to say its as much a style issue as an SEO option. This is something I've followed through to my own sites, which at times makes some long title tags. IE: Weird Wales - Ghosts And The Paranormal - Ghostly Llandaff Catherdral. Now, I'm aware that a lot of people drop the first two levels and have just the page title as the tag. Should I consider doing the same? What is best? Is it: Site Name - Site Section - Page Title Site Section - Page Title Site Name - Page Title Page Title? From your experience, which is most useful?
I'd say it depends on how likely the site name is to be a relevant searched for phrase. If the site name was generic like alleyoop or freshy or something like that and sold pet products, I'd cut the name out altogether and leave the section and page topic. If the name was relevant like ... oh um... Pet products for example, I'd include it, but place it after the more specific page and section. Flea Shampoo - dogs - pet products.