I'm interested in hearing what people have to say about segmenting keyword focus in your TITLE tag or using Natural Language? I've been segmenting and it has proven successful through all of the updates, etc. I believe in natural language in terms of the copy of a site and the META DESC, but I'm not too sure of the usefulness of its in the TITLE tag.

Well, if I understand you correctly, I prefer to use as many scored keyword phrases as possible in the title, as long as they are proper English and describe the page.

Just having keyword phrases will get the page found, but if it does not "speak" to the searcher, it is not likely to get many clicks. I really think your titles are the most important thing and need to walk the line between optimization and good marketing copy.

Thanks,
Chris

When writing any title tag I always go for a well written descriptive sentence with the core keyphrase in their for the page, in the region of 70 characters in length. I then base the Meta description tag on the information from the title tag but in alot more detail adding in other keyphrases that the page talks about.

I steer clear of writing tags such as: keyword phrase, key-word phrase, keyword keyword.

Looks tacky, dont forget the title is the clickable link in the search results, what are people more likely to click on?

See that is my point ... If you are focusing on one keyphrase per page, yes I do believe using a formal well-written sentence is a benefit. If someone is scanning a page of SERP listings, and your TITLE lists the things they are looking for, why not construct as: keyphrase, keyphrase, keyphrase?

I am looking at this from the standpoint of being an SEM Stragtegist and CUA. I remember viewing a study, which I would have to find about the hotspots on a page and I am wondering if this sort of study would relate to this topic? There is so much talk about what is Black, White Hat these days and I believe we are missing the real details of our tactics.

I see the TITLE tag as a marker, the item that allows your site the visibility for your topic. I see the META DESC as the hook in verbally associating this almost bullet point TITLE with the topic of your page. Am I looking to deep into it, is it simper than that or have we not really looked at the benefits/downsides of our tactics.

or I could be over thinking this all together ...

If someone is scanning a page of SERP listings, and your TITLE lists the things they are looking for, why not construct as: keyphrase, keyphrase, keyphrase?

Instead of having a list of keywords stuffed in the title tag I would rather have a page for each of those important keyphrases, thus building the sites content and keeping it looking neat and tidy.

I guess this answer to this is purely based on the context of its use and the constraints of a client's site. In many cases I believe that centering one page around a keyword is strategic, but there are many cases where a client's page focuses on so many items, which is necessary to support the end goal, that the bullet point method for scanning can be useful as well.
I am very interested in search behavior and intent that guiding it to a conversion can be done via different methods.

I guess I'm trying to expand upon the simplicity of just saying, well use natural language in your TITLE and based the whole page on one keyphrase. Well okay, I agree with that depending on the goal it supports, but is this the only method? I've had a lot of success optimizing pages for 3-4 keywords that result in conversions.

Maybe its the behavior of the SEM, how aggressive will you go to achieve conversion? Is it this grey area...

I guess this answer to this is purely based on the context of its use and the constraints of a client's site. In many cases I believe that centering one page around a keyword is strategic, but there are many cases where a client's page focuses on so many items, which is necessary to support the end goal, that the bullet point method for scanning can be useful as well.
I am very interested in search behavior and intent that guiding it to a conversion can be done via different methods.

I guess I'm trying to expand upon the simplicity of just saying, well use natural language in your TITLE and based the whole page on one keyphrase. Well okay, I agree with that depending on the goal it supports, but is this the only method? I've had a lot of success optimizing pages for 3-4 keywords that result in conversions.

Maybe its the behavior of the SEM, how aggressive will you go to achieve conversion? Is it this grey area...

Although site dependent as depth and breadth of topic define the best arrangement for title elements.

Example on content Breadth:
<title>Used Cars @ Lucky's Car Lot</title>
<title>Used Trucks @ Lucky's Car Lot</title>
<title>Used Vans @ Lucky's Car Lot</title>

Example on content Depth:
<title>Used Cars @ Lucky's Car Lot</title>
<title>Ford Used Cars @ Lucky's Car Lot</title>
<title>Ford Tempo Used Cars @ Lucky's Car Lot</title>
<title>Ford Tempo Parts Used Cars @ Lucky's Car Lot</title>

Although site dependent as depth and breadth of topic define the best arrangement for title elements.

So breadth is a more advanced scheme compared to depth? Could you elaborate upon these terms in relation to the structure of the TITLE?

So breadth is a more advanced scheme compared to depth? Could you elaborate upon these terms in relation to the structure of the TITLE?

Not not really - they work together.

Alot like the breadcrumb trails in a directory...

Breadth works across different trees of topics where depth work in the same tree of topics

e.g. larger topic scale

BREADTH: Business / Computers / Home / Science

Depth: FOR BUSINESS: Services > Marketing > Research > Surveys

Depth: FOR COMPUTERS: Software > Multimedia > Science > Oceanography

Depth: FOR HOME: Improvment > Lanscaping > Shrubs

Depth: FOR SCIENCE: Earth Science > Geology > Plate Tectonics

Good example Fathom. I guess this discussion has tiptoed into the realm of linguistics, which I am by no means an expert in. I use the breadcrumb navigation for a lot of our clients who have larger database driven websites.
I'd be interested in seeing how you would construct a TITLE tag for a pseudo client like an Organic Marketplace. Something that I have no background info for, but it's the first thing that came to mind.
So the client owns an organic marketplace located in Pasadena, CA specializing in products like vegetables, soy products and herbal supplements.
Using your depth and breadth method, how would you construct this TITLE? Sort of a real-time example. If anyone has a client like this, well then you're in luck!

Good example Fathom. I guess this discussion has tiptoed into the realm of linguistics, which I am by no means an expert in. I use the breadcrumb navigation for a lot of our clients who have larger database driven websites.
I'd be interested in seeing how you would construct a TITLE tag for a pseudo client like an Organic Marketplace. Something that I have no background info for, but it's the first thing that came to mind.
So the client owns an organic marketplace located in Pasadena, CA specializing in products like vegetables, soy products and herbal supplements.
Using your depth and breadth method, how would you construct this TITLE? Sort of a real-time example. If anyone has a client like this, well then you're in luck!

With knowing the factual depth and breath of dialogue in conjunction with products it's hard to illustrate hypothetically but:

If a primary 'local' market the location should be used - however this can be also address by include the address in the footer on every page.

I would also believe 'organic' to be your primary keyword, and

vegetables, soy products, herbal supplements to be niche lowest level categories as in a directory so would conclude:

Mainpage

<title>Organic Health Foods & Health Living @ Company Name</title>

Second Tier Page
<title>Nutritional Supplements Organic @ Company Name</title>

Third Tier Page
<title>Herbal Nutritional Supplements Organic @ Company Name</title>

Next Second Tier
<title>Produce & Health Foods @ Company Name</title>

Third Tier Pages
<title>Vegetables Produce Health Foods @ Company Name</title>
<title>Soy Products Produce Health Foods @ Company Name</title>

Proper punctuation should be use 'if' the title line doesn't make sense but you should avoid 'stop words' [and, the, a, or]

BVut naming convention should be well thought out and aligned and adjust to match available content.