Meta Title and Description Length: What Google Actually Cuts Off

Google decides how much space a search result gets, and if your title or meta description exceeds that limit, it will be cut off with an ellipsis. This usually means important information like your call-to-action or keyword will not be visible. To avoid this, you need to keep your titles and descriptions within certain limits. Titles should be between 50 to 60 characters, while meta descriptions should be between 120 to 155 characters.

Characters are a good proxy for measuring length because Google measures width in pixels. Keeping your primary keyword near the front of the title is important, as even if the title is cut off, the beginning will still be visible. To check the length of your titles and descriptions, you can use the console in your browser and log the length of the title and description.

However, this only checks the current page. If you want to check a page you have already deployed, you will need to fetch the HTML and parse the two tags out, which usually requires a small server-side fetch due to CORS walls. The entire search result preview, including the title and meta description, is what actually gets displayed in the search engine results page (SERP), not just the length numbers.

The same title or description may look different depending on whether it is being viewed on desktop or mobile, as mobile versions tend to truncate sooner. To get a better idea of how your titles and meta descriptions will appear in the SERP, you can use the Title and Meta Description Checker on Pixellize. This tool allows you to paste any public URL and will show you the character count of your title and description against Google's recommended ranges, along with a quick score out of 100 and a live SERP snippet preview for both desktop and mobile. You can also edit your titles and descriptions inline and watch the preview update in real-time.