To Optimize Brand Name or Product Name First on Product Pages for E-Commerce Website?

[youhow]

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In regards to individual product pages such as this one http://www.amgair.com/air-purifiers/iqair-healthpro-plus-air-purifier/, would it be more effective to have the page title start with the brand name and then the product (as we have it now) or forgo the brand name and start with just the product.

IE: IQAir Healthpro Plus Air Purifier or HealthPro Plus Air Purifier by IQAir.

These are commodity type products and are price restricted so all competitive websites advertise at the same pricing and it would be helpful not only to have a keyword phrase that is searched for a lot but also one that is easy to rank for.

Please give me a recommendation when possible.

[Stevej24]

I would say that if the brand name is well known, it would go first, if not, I think the product.

[icecarats]

This one can have a variety of responses depending on the shopping pattern of the customer. For example I've dealt with similar products in the past (e.g. MAP, commodified) and it would depend on a couple of factors. First of which is to determine, which is better known? The product, or the brand? Which is searched for more?

A quick Google Fight indicates (sorry I know it's old but I love this site):

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=IQAir&word2=%22HealthPro+Plus%22

That there are far more documents with IQAir in them as opposed to 'HealthPro Plus' (this is by no means scientific; I didn't use 'HealthPro' by itself because there's some noise from other products). If you use the Keyword Difficulty Tool you'll see that IQAir has a keyword difficulty rating of 50%, HealthPro 40%, and HealthPro Plus 38%. So this tells us a few things:

1. The competition may be more likely to be targeting the brand since its competition is higher

2. The product specific keywords are 'easier'

Take a grain of salt with these difficulties obviously; if SEOMoz could pinpoint exactly what was easiest and what was hardest they'd be making a lot more money than they are now!

The other thing to examine is how do your customers shop. Are they informed usually, and know they want an IQAir HealthPro Plus air purifier? Or do they start by looking for 'air purifier' or 'allergen reducing air purifier', etc. If the brand has a very strong position then you can safely assume that it's the more relevant keyword to be targeting; if it isn't (e.g. dozens of other people offer the same product) then the general product keyword is. So basically it would go:

1. Brand strongest: (Brandname) (Product Title) (Product Type)

2. Product strongest: (Product Title) (Brand Name) (Product Type)

3. Product Type strongest: (Product Type) (Brand Name) (Product Title)

Obviously the second and third criteria might shift based on their strength/shopping patterns too.