Title tag - shorter = better?

[echo1]

Is it true that the shorter the Title tag is the more powerful the keywords in it are?
I know that the main keywords have to be at the beginning of the title but, having more words in your Title could dilute the effectiveness of your main keywords?

Ex: Dallas limo service | Private car by SelectLimousine.

Could  the fact that I have a second part of my title  affect the first part by diluting its value? I would like to rank first for Dallas car service but also for Dallas car service and Dallas limousine service. Is this good practice?

[seanmccauley]

Why would SeoMoz not wish to appear on Page 1 of serps as such a position a) would bring new subscribers and b) demonstrate they are not summed up by the idiom; Those who can,do; those who can't, teach

In the past I have met a number of SEO companies who make a play on the 'we're not about our results, we're about your results' Ahem, perhaps you can't match the SEO skills of your competitors?

Anyway back to the topic, I am interested in your understanding of how ranking importance is distributed,that each keyword in a title tag is given its share along the lines of; If  the title is one word like "SEO" then that word is given 100 points. If the title is "Search Engine Optimization" then each term would be given about 33 points. As many have suggested the earlier the keyword appears in the tag, the more importance it received and therefore the share for this title might be 45,35,20?

Lets look at an example of a title tag for a eCommerce site

Toshiba 3D LCD TVs | Free Delivery | TH32TT | TH42TT | Tellys.com

As free delivery often help conversions (though of course title tags are not often read by humans) there is worthwhile search volume. Also the two most popular model numbers also receive search volume. (please ignore that this may cause competition with product pages and assume that this is a one page site and/or there will be no duplication or internal conflict). In this case just how much negative effect are these extra keywords inficting? Would it be better to strip back to Toshiba 3D LCD TVS   ???

Thanks

[RyanKent]

Presently SEOmoz is not on the first page of Google for "SEO Software" nor "simple seo software". If they wanted to be, I am sure they could optimize pages for these terms and appear on the first page of Google SERPs.

Titles are not purely about ranking. There is the branding factors and how you wish people to think of your company. From a pure ranking perspective for "SEO software", you are correct the term "simplified" should be removed. I would bet Rand prioritized presenting his company slogan in the title above having the page rank well.

[echo1]

It would be interesting to see some answers from Seomoz; their Title says: SEO Software. Simplified. | SEOmoz. Why would they dilute the first part of their Title? I do not think that "simplified" is one of their key terms.

[RyanKent]

Is that the case even if [the title is] below 64 chars?

Yes. I think you may be confusing Google's title display limit (about 70 chars) with this question. How many characters Google will display is not related to the weighting for each word in the title.

I just went back and re-watched all the Matt Cutts videos where the title was discussed. It was never confirmed by Matt that adding extra keywords to title tags causes the dilution. Even so, I am still convinced that is the case and will act on that understanding.

I base my opinion on a few patents from Google that I have reviewed, other articles, and my logical understanding of how Google works.

The below video discusses titles and Matt describes how Google recognizes when Title tags or Meta description tags contain the same information throughout the site. I have to believe Google recognizes the site name appended to the end of a title tag as a common practice and adjusts accordingly.

In summary, I maintain my understanding the title tag itself is given a certain weight. Let's say 100 "points". If the title is one word like "SEO" then that word is given 100 points. If the title is "Search Engine Optimization" then each term would be given about 33 points. This is the way I see the weight of title tags being distributed, in a similar way to a page's PR is distributed to the links on a page. If anyone agrees or disagrees with this thinking I would enjoy hearing other opinions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlJiLDn9-38

[seanmccauley]

Is that the case even if below 64 chars? If so, there are very many of us who think anything up to 64 is fine and have added unnecessary keywords or other text. eg a very common approach is for a product page title Cheap Blue Widget | Widgetsrus.com Online. You are suggesting anything past the pipe is reducing power of title tag? As most domain names will already rank bvery well placing them in title tag would therefore be bad practice?

[RyanKent]

Is it true that the shorter the Title tag is the more powerful the keywords in it are?

Yes

If that wasn't the case, then it would encourage site owners to create longer titles with every possible key word and phrase. Title: Dallas Limo Service | Dallas Limousine Service | Dallas Limos | etc. etc.

As you ad additional key words to your title you are adding relevancy to your page for those search results, but less relevancy then any page which only targets one key phrase. A page which focuses a single topic is considered a more relevant result then a page who's focus is divided amongst multiple topics.