Is it better to include the secondary keyword or site name in a title tag?

[lwilkins]

When I add a site name to my title tag with long-tailed primary and secondary keywords the title tag is longer than 70 characters. I need to include all three parts, so what should I do? At 70 characters the site name is usually partially cut off. I do not want to get penalized by Google, but I need to include the site name to have consistency. I am using the format Primary Keyword-Secondary Keyword | Site name

[lwilkins]

Thank you Alex for your response! I am going to include more keywords in my meta description than just my h1 tag. I am starting to figure things out. Thanks again!

[Alex-Harford]

I don't believe you'll get 'penalised by Google' if the title tag is too long - as you know your full title just won't display in the search engine results pages (SERPs). If your site name is well-known and/or might improve click-throughs it is worth having it visible in the title tag. Personally I don't see a problem with the site name cutting off on some occasions - it's not going to stop people clicking is it...?

The meta description should be geared more towards getting click-throughs - as you probably know the words people search for show bold on the SERPs so as long as it reads naturally and doesn't look spammy, it's worth having other keywords in there too. Just remember it's there to encourage people to click to your site.

[lwilkins]

Great, thank you Daniel! This is for a static page on my blog that has h1 and h2 tags. I heard that you only need to include the h1 keyword in your meta description. Is that true?

[DanSpeicher]

Use only the primary keyword.

You can use both in the body text, headings, meta description, etc. (if they're related).

Either of these title formats would work nicely:

Primary Keyword | Category | Site Name

or

Primary Keyword - Category | Site Name