Targeting Two Keyword Sets In Page Titles- Long Page Titles Still Taboo?

[Planet13]

Is it still taboo to have long page titles (ten words or more), or has google evolved to where having a long page title is not counterproductive?

In the past, a lot of people seemed to preach having short, concise titles (under 7 words, under 160 characters or something like that).

However, there are some pages I would like to target two different keyword sets. An example might be:

"Which Widget Should I Get? A Widget Buying Guide For Noobs"

Is that title too long? I would like to target both the keyword set "widget buying guide" and "which widget should I get".

In the past (before Panda) people probably would have put the info on two different pages.

However, I think it would be more useful to the end user to have it on one page.

Your thoughts?

[goodroi]

If you really want to follow best practice for Google SEO you should target one keyword concept per page. Since Google has been increasingly rewriting page titles in the serps I would not worry that much. Your suggested title is ok. It is not highly keyword stuffed and would probably appeal to consumers.

Some people become obsessed with title tags and count every character and rewrite them till it is perfect. IMHO that is overkill and the energy could be better used elsewhere. I have also seen Google count the width of the page titles and not just the character counts (w is wider than i) and that just confuses the whole topic of what is the ideal title tag.

[Planet13]

Thank you, goodroi:

"...you should target one keyword concept per page."

That begs the question, how do you determine a single keyword concept?

While we can look up search terms using adwords tools, is there an easy way to determine when a single concept might include multiple search terms?

I guess, in short, what I am asking is how do you balance between having a single concept per page and making the subject matter of the page broad enough so that it is consumer friendly?

[vlexo]

How about:
Which Widget Buying Guide Should I Get?"

[darkyl]

Lately in my niche I've been observing sites rising in the serps targeting multiple keywords sets with longer titles.
And from what I can see, they're having great results.

I'm actually noticing the opposite in some niches: short titles with keywords matching searches are declining.