PDF 
Of the approximately 200 variables that make up the elusive Google Algorithm, research shows that the <title> tag is probably within the top 10 of the most important on the list.
To make this a little clearer before I continue this post, the <title> tag is the section of text given to the words/phrase that appears in the very top of the browser window. In Internet Explorer, this is generally a blue bar, in Google Chrome you’ll be looking at the tab, same goes for the latest version of FireFox.
On this page look up and you’ll see the following for the <title> tag on this page:
Title Tags are One of the Low Hanging Fruits of SEO Go Pick Them! | Internet Marketing Source Blog
Another method for determining the <title> tag of a page is to look at the code view. Title tags are placed in the “head” section of the source code and formatted like this: <title>title text for web page here</title>
Since a large percentage of web users rarely pay attention to the “blue bar/title tag”, this leaves the tag wide open for SEO domination. In other words, we can use whatever keywords/phrases that makes sense for SEO, even if it doesn’t make sense for users (although naturally it will make some sense, but you get my point).
Furthermore, <title> tags are generally extremely easy to implement. On straight html-based pages, the tag can be changed in a matter of minutes. With more dynamic-type websites, the CMS usually includes the option to define the <title> tag, such as with the Internet Marketing Source site.
With this information, it is surprising to know that very few web sites utilize the <title> tag for SEO purposes. In many cases the tag simply says “Welcome to the official site for XYZ Company”. While that is a nice way to introduce the site, and like I mentioned earlier, not only do few web users pay attention to the tag, but a phrase such as this does not tell search engines anything about your site’s content.
That said, one should carefully write their <title> tags to be specific to the page on which it resides, use intentional keywords and phrases that surround your company and industry. There is no harm in placing your company name in the <title> tag for reference, but place this AFTER your keywords/phrases. Why? Search engines tend to focus on the first 70 characters within the <title> tag for ranking purposes. If you put your company name first, unless your company includes relative keywords, you are taking up valuable real estate.
One final point to mention is that your <title> tag has a value off your site also. When search engines display a list of results for a given search, the <title> tag is the text that is displayed as the link for each listing. For example, in Google, this is the large blue underlined text at the top of each search result. For this reason, I tend to write my <title> tags in “phrase” format, that would somewhat help incentify a click. After all, a user is most likely going to click a readable sentence vs. a string of keywords.
Hope this helps put the <title> tag in perspective for you… now don’t hang around, get picking! Then tell me about your <title> tag success story in the comments below.
About Sam Beamond