If you don't know it yet, your web page's TITLE is one of the MOST important
SEO factor in ranking high in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Check it out: go to a major search engine and type in search engine
optimization (with/without quotations). What do you see in the 1st page of
the SERPs?

Most of the top results have search engine optimization near the very
beginning of their titles, and these titles have the keyword phrase search
engine optimization BOLD-TYPED!

*Notice the bold-types of the descriptions too? I'll talk about this later
but for now let's get back to how to configure your WordPress blog's title tag.

By default, most WordPress themes have your blog's name BEFORE your
post/categories/etc. title:

Your Blog Name » Blog Archives » Blog-Post-Title

This, of course, is NOT favorable if you want to have the extra edge over
your competition in the SEO war. Anyway, here's a step-by-step tutorial on how
you can configure the title of your post/category/etc. to this (without any
plugin):

Blog-Post-Title » Your Blog Name

*Note: The phrase "Blog Archives" has been deleted.

How to Move Your "Blog-Post-Title" before the "Blog Name"

In order to do this, you need to open up the "header.php" file in your
WordPress theme folder. You need a 'php' file editor to do this; if not, DON'T
WORRY--just do the following:

-First, change the "header.php" file extension to "header.txt".

-Next, open the "header.txt" file and 'find' for the following code that begins
with the < title> tag:

< title>< ?php bloginfo('name'); ?>< ?php wp_title(); ?>< /title>

*Note: < ?php bloginfo('name'); ?> is your Blog Name, and < ?php
wp_title(); ?> is your Blog-Post-Title. Also, you only need these two "< ?php>"
codes: just delete the rest of the other codes or texts (e.g. "Blog Archives").

Now, all you have to do is moved the < ?php wp_title(); ?> before the
< ?php bloginfo('name'); ?>:

BEFORE:

< title>< ?php bloginfo('name'); ?>< ?php wp_title(); ?>< /title>

AFTER:

< title>< ?php wp_title(); ?>< ?php bloginfo('name'); ?>< /title>

That's it you're DONE! The last step is to save the file as a "php"
extension, "header.php" (without the quotations), and upload it to your site's
theme folder and watch the transformation of your Wordpress Blog-Post-Title goes
before your Blog Name:

Blog-Post-Title » Your Blog Name

O.K. That’s it for my tutorial on the configuring your blog name and title
WITHOUT using any plugin. For various WordPress plugins that can configure the title for your blog (and more), please see my articles on "Top Wordpress Meta-Tag Plugins List."

*Note: It's better to use 'less' WordPress plugins rather than many of them, because not all of WordPress plugins are compatible with each other.

M.T. Nguyen is the owner of TheSEOBlogger.com. On his SEO blog, he offers the latest SEO tips & tutorials on search engine optimization (SEO):
http://theseoblogger.com.