Do you avoid the use of stop words in your keyword optimization?

[nicole.healthline]

For example, for the keyword phrase 'the history of the united states,' how would you determine whether or not to include 'the' or 'of' in the title, description, and URL?

Do you tend to use stop words or not in your keyword optimization? Why or why not?

[EGOL]

I never think about "stop" words or "keyword density"... I try to use words that will make the fastest and strongest connection with the reader.

Sometimes that eliminates the stopwords for you.

"US History" is a face slapper in my opinion....  BAM!    "The history of the United States" is a sleeper.

[DenverKelly]

Excellent question and a great response. I guess the original query is still out there - do stop words have any real SEO impact?