Keywords in front of the title element and on page keyword optimization

[Ticket_King]

After running one of my landing pages through the SEOmoz on-page keyword optimization tool, I see that my keywords are 13 characters from the front of the title.  My page is already receiving an A letter grade.  The 13 characters in front of my keyword phrase are not vital, but they related to the keyword phrase.  Is it that important that I drop the related word, in order to get my keyword phrase to start at the front?

[itrogers]

Hey Paul-

If you are already receiving an A grade for the page, I don't see why you would need to drop those 13 characters before it. Remember that those words can entice users to click on your site in the SERPs if it looks more attractive than your competitors. For example, look at the SEOmoz Title: "SEO Software. Simplified." Im sure simplified is not one of their major target keywords, but helps both users and search engines.

[scanlin]

Depends how competitive the keyword is. If highly competitive then, yes, put phrase at start of title tag. If you're already ranking well and the phrase is not too competitive then you have a bit more leeway. See http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/title-tag#seo-best-practice