How to Write Title Tags and Meta Descriptions That Google Keeps

Write a title that describes this page and no other, with the distinguishing words first and your brand last. Write a description that summarizes the page in a sentence or two with specifics, then accept that Google may show something else. There’s no official length limit for either, despite the numbers you’ll see quoted. Length affects only what gets cut off, and search results cut text by width, not by a count of characters.

What Google actually says about length

Google’s title link documentation says there is no limit on the length of a <title> element, but that the title link “is truncated in Google Search results as needed, typically to fit the device width.” The snippet documentation says the same about descriptions: “There’s no limit on how long a meta description can be”, and snippets are cut as needed.

The commonly quoted figures, about 60 characters or 600 pixels for titles and about 155 to 160 characters for descriptions, are measurements by the SEO community, and Google doesn’t publish them. They’re useful as guidelines, but they aren’t rules. A title over the line isn’t penalized. Its end just may not be visible.

Why pixels and not characters

Letters have different widths. We measured strings in Arial at 20 pixels, using the font’s real metrics. SEO measurements commonly use about that size to approximate desktop titles, but Google doesn’t publish its layout, and it can change at any time.

That last one is about the same length as the others in characters and over 60 percent wider than the first title. All-caps titles get cut much sooner. On a phone, width varies again by device.

Two practical rules follow. Put the words that matter at the front, because if anything is lost, it’s the end. And make sure a cut-off title still reads sensibly, since you can’t control exactly where the cut falls.

What Google rewrites and why

Google doesn’t only use your <title> element. Its documentation lists other sources: the main visual title on the page, heading elements such as <h1>, og:title, other prominent text, anchor text on and pointing to the page, and WebSite structured data.

In September 2021, Google reported that title elements were used about 87 percent of the time, up from about 80 percent before a change that followed user feedback. That’s the most recent figure we could find from Google, so it may be different today. But it shows that the title element usually wins.

Google’s documentation names four situations that lead to a replacement. Here’s each one, with a fix.

Half-empty titles. A template fails to fill in the page name, leaving something like | Site Name.

<!-- Bad: the template's product name came through empty -->
<title> | Harbor Outfitters</title>

<!-- Good -->
<title>Waxed Canvas Tote Bag | Harbor Outfitters</title>

Obsolete titles. Google’s example is an annual page where the visible heading says 2021 and the title element still says 2020. Google may take the date from the heading. Either update both, or remove the year if the page isn’t year-specific.

Inaccurate titles. The title doesn’t match what’s on the page. The usual case is a page whose content changes while its title doesn’t. Google’s 2021 post describes this as a static title that doesn’t match changing page content.

Micro-boilerplate. Several pages on a site share an identical title, for example all the seasons of a TV show. Google may add the season number from a heading.

<!-- Bad: the same on every season page -->
<title>Shark Stories | Stream on TV Site</title>

<!-- Good -->
<title>Shark Stories Season 3 | Stream on TV Site</title>

Keyword stuffing is called out separately as bad practice, since repeated words make a result look spammy. Search results also show the site name in its own place above the title on many layouts. That reduces the need to repeat your brand at length in every title. Google’s site name documentation explains how to influence that with structured data.

If Google keeps replacing a title, compare your title with your <h1>. A title and heading that match in meaning leave the system nothing to fix.

Writing a good title

Here’s a process rather than a formula:

1. Name the page’s subject in the reader’s words. “Compress PDF Files” and not “Document Optimization Solutions”.
2. Add what sets this page apart. A qualifier, a number, or a benefit that’s true: “Without Uploading Them”.
3. Add the brand at the end, if there’s room, separated by | or a dash.
4. Check that no other page on the site has the same title. Duplicates are a template problem. Fix them at the template.

Here’s a real title from this site, with our name added after it:

Image Compressor: Shrink JPG, PNG and WebP to a Target Size | OnlineTextLab

The page-specific part measured 579 pixels in Arial at 20 pixels, and the whole title 723. So in a result about 600 pixels wide, the brand is what gets cut, and the part that describes the page survives. That’s the reason to put the brand last.

Avoid these:

• Listing keywords. PDF Compressor, Compress PDF, PDF Size Reducer says nothing to a reader.
• Promises the page doesn’t keep. People will click and leave.
• A title starting with your brand, unless the page is your home page or a page about the company, as that’s what gets the most attention and space.

Writing a useful meta description

Google’s snippet documentation says snippets are “mainly” created from page content, and that a description is used when it gives a more accurate summary than on-page text. Since snippets are chosen to match each query, one page can show different text for different searches. Google won’t always use yours, which is normal and doesn’t mean you did something wrong.

Descriptions don’t directly help you rank. Their job is to help the searcher decide, so write for that:

• Be specific. Google suggests including details such as author, publication date, price or manufacturer where relevant.
• Summarize, don’t sell. “Waxed cotton tote, 15 oz canvas, 14 x 16 in, $68, ships in 2 days” beats “The best tote for your lifestyle!”
• Make it unique per page. Google recommends this directly. A site-wide description is acceptable for a home page and not for individual articles.
• Avoid a list of keywords. Google says these are less likely to be shown.
• Put the key information early, because mobile snippets may show less.

For a large database-driven site, generating descriptions from fields is fine, and Google allows that as long as results are readable and varied.

<!-- Weak -->
<meta name="description" content="Welcome to our site. We offer the best bags. Click here to learn more.">

<!-- Better -->
<meta name="description" content="Waxed canvas tote with a brass zipper and inner pocket. Holds a 15-inch laptop, weighs 1.2 lb, and comes with a 5-year repair guarantee.">

If you need to control snippet output, three settings help. max-snippet limits its length, nosnippet removes it, and the data-nosnippet attribute keeps specific parts of the page out of it.

Checking what you wrote

Our Meta Title Checker and Meta Description Checker report the length and an estimated width from Arial metrics, for desktop and mobile. The SERP Preview shows a mock result. Treat these as draft aids. The budgets behind them come from observed layouts and are not Google limits. If a checker says you’re 10 pixels over and the title reads well, keep it.

The real test is Search Console. Search your query, look at what Google displays, and watch impressions and click-through rate per page over time. A page with many impressions and a low click rate is the one to rewrite first, since it shows that people see the page and then choose something else.

For pages that Google isn’t showing at all, titles aren’t the place to begin. See why your page isn’t indexed.