: I'm seeing a lot of a new format for title elements for major sites: a few tags, and only then the title of the site itself, is this now optimal SEO? I'm seeing a lot of sites go to a

@Angie530

It's good for SEO as the page specific keywords are first.

It's good for SERPs as the meaning of the page will show up in search results. It's better for searchers to see what a page is about and not just the name of a company.

It's good for users as their tabs and browser will display text that indicate what the page is about.

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@Sims2060225

Those sites are correct. It's Google who got it wrong this time. They made the mistake of making SEO conflict with usability. And most site owners tend to choose SEO over user experience. Unfortunately, until Google fixes their algorithm, we're probably going to see more and more sites titling their pages this way.

Edit:
Just to give an example of how this keyword order rule de-optimizes user experience and search results, 3 pages with all other things being equal would be ranked in this order based on their page titles:


SEO - Better Ranking - Search - 10 tips
10 easy SEO tips for better search ranking
Matt Cutts gives 10 easy SEO tips for better search ranking


So the least coherent and most spammy page title is highest, and the title most descriptive and useful to users is last.

A real world example of this was that prior to StackExchange switching to this format, they were consistently being outranked (by several positions) by sites duplicating their content. This was despite StackExchange's high PR and being the originator of the content.

This situation is just like early algorithms which rewarded keyword stuffing. Every time you create a new ranking factor that isn't directly tied to content quality or aligned with usability, you dilute the actual ranking power of good content and encourage spammy behavior.

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