Should I bother with branded keywords in my onsite SEO improvements?

[bbelgard]

Someone recently told me that using branded keywords extensively in your copy and titles may be unnecessary so long as you have a substantial catalog of back links containing keyword rich anchor text. Can I take this to mean I can privilege non-branded terms over branded in my onsite SEO efforts?

[Malarowski]

The way I handled it is to have the brand in the root domain and wherever it fit at the end. Otherwise, I used non-branded keywords primarily as organic links generally will give you branded anchor text rather than keywords. You don't want to completely neglect the brand name, but it tends to build itself much more than other keywords.

[Gyi]

I think Mike has it right. The short answer is that you want both branded and non-branded signals. You should prioritize branded vs. unbranded based upon your brand, the marketplace for the products or services you offer, and how people research and shop for what you're offering.

As for on-page title conventions, I like:

unbranded term | call to action | brand

or

unbranded term | brand | unbranded/call to action

Just some general guidelines.