No I wouldn't. I would, and normally do use, titles like "Blog Directory" or "Free Blog Directory" among a few others when submitting to directories. In fact the second "Blog Directory" in my title tag is actually a typo, it should read "Superblog Directory" not "Super Blog Directory" as it is the sites actual name...
That's interesting. Type in either of those title phrases, or both with the pipe in between (which is the official site title). In each case they come up #1 in Google. Google doesn't seem to have any trouble with the pipe. Also, the title in its full length fits nicely in the Google SERPs hyperlink, without a ... at the end. However, I respect your editorial rights to determine these things for your own site. Just thought I'd mention that the search engines have no trouble with it.
It has nothing to do with what Google does or does not index or how many sites use pipes in their titles. Feel free to put a whole boatload of them anywhere you feel like. In my experience, 99.9% of the submissions I get to my lowly directory with a pipe in their submission title, as this discussion pertains to directory submission titles not the title tag on your site, are spam. So I just delete them and move on.
If you own a directory ask your self this question: How much traffic do you think you can give for my site? The only reason I submit to a directory is to get a link with my keywords. These directories never bring any traffic. If you don't allow keywords then just close down your directory and stop wasting my time. Either that or put a big red notice stating that, so can hit the back button asap.
I don't like pipes or punctuation in titles, I feel it should read unbroken as a brief summary of the site's content for the benefit of the end-user. What's important is a balance between brevity and enough information to make the title tailored to the site as Mike's examples demonstrated well.
For those that do own a directory, a far better question to ask themselves is whether the site you are submitting constitutes spam or is actually worthy of being listed. The site title can answer that for them if it is stuffed with keywords. Hence you probably get rejected from a lot of decent directories. The ones that do list you won't be worth submitting to in the first place. The site title should be short and sweet. <brand/company name> <product/field> Mikey's examples adhere to this structure. For those who are submitting, I would use no more than 5 words in a Site Title.
With respect if its a free directory then you, i or anyone else doesn't have a say, we cant be fussy with that. But if you paid to be reviewed and listed then yes i agree that keywords should be allowed to an extent. I submit to web directories in an attempt to improve serps, so of course leading to SE traffic so naturally yeah its expected to want keywords within the title. What are pipes?
I usually kick str8 to the curb sites with punctuation and all kinds of pipes and colons in title. another of my pet peeves is keyword stuffed descriptions. Damn, and another is sites that are not in English - they get the flush ASAP. Reading the site submission guidelines is a big plus on my end.
Link popularity Its a link, and although doesn't keyword spam your site, still helps it get a boost which goes nicely with those links that are keyword spamming you
C'mon mikey... You and I and everyone else knows very well that if I sell blue widgets and I use "Blue Widgets" from now until the end of time the only thing that will happen is I get penalized for my effort... Link titles are like underwear... you really should change them once in a while... you do change your underwear do you not?
I get such a kick out of folks who expect for a directory to send them traffic but think that they can submit whatever spammy thing they want. The directories that are able to send traffic to the listed sites are the ones that can rank well in the search engines and get non-submitting traffic. Allowing submitters to submit whatever keyword stuffed title and description they want will only ensure that doesn't happen.
I always thought they were talking about you - but never really found out why they put you in their titles and why that´s annoying...
I tend to look at things from the users point of view. "What I am going to get when I click on this title?" Do they actually get something like what they would expect? A title stuffed with keywords often doesn't say much except spam and that would get rejected.. The actual title may not say much either but I'd accept that.