Meta Title & Description Checker

Google-style preview

Desktop

Mobile

The preview shows where Google would likely cut the text with three dots. Real results can differ a little.

Check many titles or descriptions at once

Paste one title or one description per line, for example a column copied from a spreadsheet. The table shows the characters, the width in pixels and a status for every line. Lines that look too long or too short are marked so you can fix them first.

Nothing to check yet.

Quick answer

For most pages, keep the meta title at about 50 to 60 characters and under 600 pixels wide, and keep the meta description at about 120 to 160 characters and under about 920 pixels wide. Google does not publish an official length limit. It cuts a title or description with three dots when the text does not fit the space, so the width in pixels is what really matters and the character count is a quick guide.

This checker counts both for you. Type in the boxes above and the counts, the status and the previews update as you type.

How to use the meta title and description checker

1. Type or paste your meta title into the title box.
2. Paste your meta description into the description box.
3. Add your focus keyword and the page address if you want the keyword check and a realistic preview.
4. Read the counts. Green means the text is inside the guide, amber means take a look, and red means it is likely to be cut or is missing.
5. Check the desktop and mobile previews, edit the text until you are happy, then copy the HTML tags.

If you do not have a draft yet, press Load example to see how a good pair looks.

Recommended meta title and description lengths

These are common industry guides, not rules from Google. They come from how wide text is in the usual search result font, and they change from time to time, so use them as a safe zone and not as a promise.

The checker marks a title as short when it has fewer than 30 characters and a description as short when it has fewer than 70 characters. A very short title or description wastes space that you could use to explain the page.

Why pixels matter more than characters

Search results are drawn with letters of different widths. A capital W takes much more room than a small i or l. Two titles with the same number of characters can have very different widths, which is why one 58 character title fits and another 58 character title ends with three dots.

The checker measures the real width of your text with the same kind of font Google uses on desktop, 20 pixel text for titles and 14 pixel text for descriptions, and compares it with the limit. The result is very close but not exact. Google can change its font and spacing, and each browser draws text a little differently, so leave a small safety margin if a title matters a lot.

On phones, titles often wrap onto two lines, while on desktop they usually stay on one line. A title that is a little long can look fine on a phone and still be cut on a laptop, so look at both previews.

How to write a good meta title

• Put the main topic or keyword near the start, so people see it first and it is not cut off.
• Describe the page honestly. The title should match what is on the page.
• Keep it short enough to fit, usually 50 to 60 characters.
• Add your brand name at the end only if there is room. If the title is cut, the end is lost first.
• Make every title on your site different, so pages are easy to tell apart.
• Write for people first. A natural title is better than a list of keywords.
• Avoid all capital letters and too many symbols.

How to write a good meta description

A meta description is a short summary of the page. Google has said it does not use it to rank pages, but it can show it under your title, and a clear description helps people decide whether to click.

• Say what the person will get on the page, in plain words.
• Use the words people search for. Google often shows matching words in bold in the snippet.
• Keep it between 120 and 160 characters, and put the most important part first.
• Give a reason to click, such as a free tool, a step by step guide or a real example.
• Do not copy the first paragraph of the page and do not repeat the keyword many times.
• Write a different description for every page.

Why Google sometimes shows something different

Google does not always show the title and description you wrote. It can build the title link from the title element, the main heading and other text on the page, especially when the title is too long, empty or repeated on many pages. For the description, Google may use your meta description or text from the page, whichever it thinks answers the search better. The same page can show different snippets for different searches.

This is normal. A good meta description still helps because it is used often, especially when it matches what the person searched for. Write a clear title and description, keep them inside the limits, and make sure the page itself answers the question.

Before and after examples

You can paste any of these into the checker above to see the difference in the counts and the previews.

Using a focus keyword

The focus keyword is the main phrase you want the page to be found for. Put it near the start of the title so it is seen first and is not cut off, and use it once in the description in a natural sentence. If you type your keyword in the checker, it tells you whether the keyword is in the title, where it starts, and whether it appears in the description. If it does not, ask whether the page really covers that topic before you change the text.

Common mistakes

• Leaving the title or description empty, so Google picks text from the page.
• Using the same title or description on many pages.
• Writing only the brand name as the title.
• Making the title so long that the end is cut off.
• Stuffing the text with keywords instead of writing a sentence.
• Checking only the desktop view and forgetting phones.
• Writing a promise that the page does not keep.

Where to set the title and description

On a WordPress site with an SEO plugin such as Rank Math or Yoast SEO, open the page, find the SEO box and fill in the title and description fields. In Shopify, open the page or product and look for the search engine listing section. In Wix and similar builders, open the SEO settings of the page. On a plain HTML site, put the title element and the description meta tag inside the head of the page. The HTML box in the checker gives you both lines, with special characters already escaped.

Frequently asked questions

About this checker

Written by Malik Ahsan. The checker measures the width of your text with the browser, using Arial at 20 pixels for titles and 14 pixels for descriptions, and compares it with common limits of 600 pixels for titles and 920 pixels for descriptions on desktop. These limits are industry guides, not rules from Google. If you only want a quick look at how a page may appear in search, you can also use our SERP preview tool.

About the author

Malik Ahsan holds an MS in Computing from Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland. He builds and tests the free tools on UtilMora.

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