Title Tag Best Practices

[SEO5Team]

In light of all the Google updates in 2013, have you updated/changed your title tag best practices?

Is the format of (Keyword | Brand)  still working well for your optimization efforts or have you started incorporating an approach similar to this format . (Keyword in a Sentence | Brand)

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

[bionewstx]

Just to add what some other folks have said here, I think that the look and length of the title tag may have a CTR effect in search result listings. Because the vast majority of people tend to overstuff and over-elongate their title tag, I think that a pithy one stands out on the page -- particularly if it is optimized for the exact keyword phrase that the searcher entered into the search engine. Just as the Google author tag adds in CTR value to the listing vis a vis author photo, name, etc., so too might the concise, short title tag pop a bit more.

(I have no data to back this up, mind you. Totally just a theory.)

[Locutus]

The title should add some value that is not otherwise present in the titles of competing pages, in order for your page to stand out, and encourage users to click on it. The value should be topic specific and address a specific, perhaps common question/need. The words used should be appealing to your target demographic, and should also look and sound good together. Go with your gut as to what you think you would like to see if you were searching on the topic, and yes, include the primary and secondary kwd's of course.

[Travis_Bailey]

I would definitely go with Rand's suggestion.

[netviper]

I haven't been able to get a definite answer on this question.

My recommendation would be to try some Primary | Brand  some Primary | Secondary | Brand and some descriptive using the keyword.

Measure how they perform.

I will say I emailed Rand not that long ago and he said Primary | Secondary | Brand is

"Not a bad way to go generally, just make sure you're also writing in such a way that's appealing to earn the click in the SERPs"