Which title tag is better

[bhartzer]

Of course, SEO includes a lot of factors. But, for right now, I would like to focus on the title tag. So, which title tag is optimized best:

1. < title >Keyword phrase < /title >
2. < title >Keyword phrase - some short description < /title >
3. < titlle >some short description - keyword phrase < /title >

I have my opinion as to which does better in a very non-competitive environment where there are less than 50,000 results, but I'd like to confirm this by getting your expert opinion.

[seobook]

I usually go with #2. if it is very non competitive then you can easily pick up a couple different phrases. if it is competitive you can look at the rankings of the overlap phrases as an indication of how close you are getting to the main phrase.

[bhartzer]

Thanks for your input. I had a hunch that I was correct by using #2 more frequently.

Right after Florida I actually saw what appeared to be a penalty for starting a title tag with the targeted keyword phrase. That appears to have been relaxed now.

[Marcia]

Some also question whether it's advisable to have a repetition of either the main phrase or one of the words included in it.

[St0n3y]

I usually go with something like this:

word KEYWORD word word KEYWORDS word word

or some variation of the above (without the caps)