Title optimization best practices for clients with insanely long business names

[MaryAnneG]

How do others utilize keywords and preserve branding in the title tag for clients with a REALLY long name?  Two examples.

Example 1:  Business name is 38 characters long in the following format:

[Firstname] [initial] [Lastname] [Businesstype] Services

38 characters is workable, but  the keywords for what he offers and this industry in general are long too.  He abbreviates to his initials in the domain name  - I don't love doing that as the acronym has a meaning of its own. (We unintentionally acquired at least one very amusing if useless backlink thanks to that.)  Leaving off "Services" saves a few characters.

Example 2:  Business name totals 58 characters and references their two related lines of business.  Similar to:

Rogers Institute of Robotic Studies and RIRS Robot Repair
or (saves a few characters)
Rogers Institute of Robotic Studies and Robot Repair

How would you handle that?  Use the appropriate half of the name on pages related to that particular LOB? Only use the brand on some pages?  Abbreviate more?  I've been using their full name on the more "general" pages of the site and omitting it in favor of keywords on the more specific pages .

Suggestions?  Other ideas?

[CPU]

As mentioned in the other responses go for the targeted keyphrase in the Title Tag if you haven't got enough room to append the company name.

I have come across individuals or organisations that have been adamant that they want it in for "branding" reasons.I just show them the analytics report of more people searching for the service than the brand or if its not an existing site the Google estimated local search volumes.

Usually the figures will win out over any potential vanity.

[scanlin]

Are users likely to use his name when searching for his site, or are they more likely to search for the kind of service he offers? if the later then forget his name in titles (except maybe the home page). IMO the title should match the likely search query for optimum SEO. And repeating the brand in every title is a waste, IMO. If you have 10 pages optimized for 10 different search queries then the title of each should be (or at least begin with) the likely search query that each page is optimized for.

[DanDeceuster]

I don't know why everyone has such a fascination with putting their brand name in the title. This is a useless tactic in my opinions. Just make the first words of your meta description be the brand name and save that valuable real estate in the title for the actual keywords that apply relevantly to what the product or service is.

I would advise leaving the brand name out of the titles entirely.