How to optimize page title?

[proweb]

The title is very important for seo. After backlinks and anchor, the page title is the most important in rankings, so it should be chosen carefully.

My question is: Is short page title more effective or should we use long title?

Example: I want to rank for 'cat food' in google. Should I choose the title: 'Cat Food' or it's recommended to use 'Best Cat Food, Discounts, Special Offers'?

Personal Experience: I usually use long page titles, and the ranking of respective pages as good for different keywords as well, but I saw, that those who are using a short page title, have higher rankings with less backlinks...

What is your opinion or experience on this?

[MuhammadWaqas]

long title shows non-professionalism. Use two or three master keywords. & its enough

[Jani]

Short titles are good because if you search for something the search results show the page title, if the page title is tooooooooo long it will not be shown completely. But the short page title will appear fully.

All my sites have short titles too

[Olga]

The short title is the best. If focussing on several keywords it is best to create seperate pages with the keyword in the title.

[sousen]

Use your keywords in your page titles - What you place between <title> and </title> in the HTML for your web page is critical. Use your keywords, avoid prepositions and conjunctions where possible (the, and, for, with, etc.) and watch your punctuation within the title. Using only dashes between phrases in a title seems to help.

For example, Manual Directory - Submission - Services. It is not necessary and usually not advisable to waste space in your page's title tag with your company's name. If you do, put it at the end of the title - you want your keywords up front.

[sheril]

long descriptive titles can give brief related search towards the keywords if they are present in the title.. so better use long titles and not too long

[pinkvinny]

Use your keywords as your page title , if possible avoid using prepositions and conjunctions.

[ganesh6789]

The ideal size of page title is 60 character long.You primary keyword can be repeated twice in the page title.