SERP Snippet Preview
See how a page's title and meta description look in Google results before you publish them. Google cuts by pixel width, not characters, so the preview measures pixels and shows exactly where the text will be cut.
Desktop
Mobile
Title and description length limits
| Element | Desktop limit | In characters, roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Title | About 600 pixels (20px Arial) | 50–60 |
| Meta description | About 920 pixels (14px Arial), over two lines | 150–160 |
Google doesn't publish these limits; they are the widths commonly measured in desktop results, and Google changes its layout from time to time. Character counts vary because letters differ in width: a title full of "W" and "M" is cut sooner than one of "i" and "l". On phones the title wraps onto a second line instead of being cut at the same point.
Writing a snippet that gets clicked
- Lead with the topic. Put the words people search for at the start of the title, where they survive any cut.
- Make each title unique. Pages with the same title look interchangeable, and Google is more likely to rewrite them.
- Say what the visitor gets. The description is an ad for the page: the answer, the price, the next step.
- Match the page. When the description doesn't match the search or the content, Google replaces it with text from the page.
Questions
Why does Google show a different title from mine?
Google rewrites titles it considers too long, stuffed with keywords, the same as other pages, or a poor match for the page. Keeping the title short, unique and accurate, and consistent with the H1, makes a rewrite less likely, though not impossible.
Why does Google ignore my meta description?
Google picks the snippet for each search. If another passage on the page answers the query better, it shows that instead. A description that summarises the page well is still used for many searches, including searches for the page's main topic.
Is it the same in Bing?
Bing's results are laid out similarly, and its limits are close to Google's. A title and description that fit in Google will almost always fit in Bing.
Can I check the title and description of every page on my site?
Yes. The Website SEO Audit crawls the whole site and lists titles and descriptions that are missing, too long, too short or duplicated.