Title tags: length, wording, and how they look in results

How long a title tag can be before results cut it short, where to put the brand, and how to write one that matches the page.

The <title> element names a page. Browsers show it in the tab, and Google uses it as the main source for the headline of a search result, which Google calls the title link. Link previews often fall back to it when a page has no og:title.

Google writes title links automatically, but a clear, specific title is the best way to influence what it shows.

What SignalDNS checks

We read the <title> from the HTML the server sends to Android Chrome, before any JavaScript runs, up to the first 2 MiB.

Google doesn’t publish where it cuts a title, so we estimate: we add up each character’s width in Arial at 20 px, the size of a desktop title, and compare the total with about 600 px. Width matters more than length: 40 capital Ws are too wide, while 60 narrow letters such as i and l fit.

The front-loading, filler word, number, agreement, and og:title checks apply to English pages only: a lang starting with en, or no lang and a title and H1 in plain ASCII.

The audit’s search preview lets you edit the title to try a change; nothing you type is sent anywhere. Google may still show a different title, as its title link guide explains.

What a good title looks like

For a page at https://www.example.com/sourdough-starter:

<title>How to make a sourdough starter | Example Bakery</title>
<meta name="description" content="Make a sourdough starter with flour and water in about a week.">
<meta property="og:title" content="How to make a sourdough starter">
<h1>How to make a sourdough starter</h1>
  • It’s 48 characters, about 458 px, under the roughly 600 px limit.
  • The topic comes first, and the brand last takes 17 characters.
  • The description, H1, and address use the same words, and og:title says the same thing.

There’s no title tag

The page has no <title> element, or an empty one, so Google builds a title link from other text, such as the main heading. SignalDNS marks this as needing attention.

How to fix it: give every page its own title inside <head>, not set by a script. Google’s guide asks you to avoid vague titles such as “Home”.

<title>How to make a sourdough starter | Example Bakery</title>

The title is too long or too short

Too wide: over about 600 px, desktop results cut the end. Google says there’s no limit on a title’s length, but the title link is truncated as needed, typically to fit the device width. Too short: under 30 characters, there’s room to say more about the page. SignalDNS marks either as needing attention.

The label beside the count (short under 30, good to 60, long to 75, very long beyond) decides nothing. The estimate ignores kerning, so a title within a few pixels of 600 is borderline.

How to fix it: keep the words that matter first, cut the rest, and shorten the brand. About 60 characters usually fits. For a short title, add what the page offers; 40 to 55 characters leaves room for the brand. The first title below is 69 characters, about 636 px, and cut off; the second is 48, about 458 px:

<title>Sourdough starter: how to make one and keep it alive | Example Bakery</title>
<title>How to make a sourdough starter | Example Bakery</title>

The brand takes up much of the title

We split the title at a separator with spaces around it: a pipe, hyphen, en or em dash, middle dot, or double colon. The brand is the last segment if it names the site, otherwise the first. Naming the site means containing og:site_name or the domain’s name, such as example for www.example.com, ignoring case and punctuation, in at most 40 characters.

A title over 45 characters that spends more than 40% of them on the brand and its separator needs attention. Sourdough starter | Example Bakery & Café of Springfield spends 39 of 56. Without a brand, nothing is judged.

Google’s guide suggests the site name at the start or end, after a delimiter. Google may leave out a name that repeats the one already shown in the result.

How to fix it: use the short name people know:

<title>Sourdough starter | Example Bakery</title>
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Example Bakery">

The title doesn’t start with the topic

We take the title’s first content word, skipping words such as “the”, “how”, “best”, and “guide”, and a brand at the start. If the description, H1, and address all leave it out, and it isn’t the site’s name, SignalDNS marks it as needing attention. Plurals are folded, so “starters” matches “starter”.

Long titles lose their end, and people scan the start; this is our rule of thumb, not Google’s.

How to fix it: start with the words the H1 and description use. Instead of Everything about sourdough starters, try Sourdough starters: how to make and feed one.

The title uses filler words

We look for ultimate, amazing, incredible, unbelievable, insane, secret, secrets, guaranteed, mind-blowing, shocking, epic, killer, awesome, revolutionary, game-changing, must-see, must-read, jaw-dropping, best-ever, and #1. One outside the brand and site name (so “Epic Bakery” doesn’t count) needs attention.

These words add length without saying what the page is. Google’s guide asks for descriptive, concise titles, and its Discover guidance warns against exaggerated ones. “Best”, “top”, and “complete” are ignored when we compare words, but not flagged.

How to fix it: say what the page offers: How to make a sourdough starter rather than The ultimate sourdough guide.

The title promises more items than the page has

A number from 2 to 500 followed by a list noun, such as tips, ideas, ways, steps, mistakes, or examples, with up to three words between, is a promise: 7 sourdough starter mistakes. Years, and numbers without a list noun, such as “Open 24 hours”, don’t count.

We count subheadings (H2 to H6), and list items outside navigation, headers, footers, and asides, and take the larger. Fewer than promised needs attention, such as “Promises 7, shows 4”. A title without a number isn’t judged. It’s a rule of thumb: people who click expect that many.

How to fix it: give each item its own subheading or list item, or change the number:

<h2>1. Using chlorinated water</h2>
<h2>2. Feeding it too rarely</h2>

The social title says something different

og:title is the title apps show when the page is shared, and Google lists it among the sources for title links. If og:title contains fewer than half of the title’s content words, brand included, SignalDNS marks it as needing attention. Without og:title, apps use the page title, so nothing is judged (see the preview title).

Because the brand counts, a short og:title can fall under half. How to make a sourdough starter | Example Bakery has five content words; Sourdough starter shares two and is flagged.

How to fix it: use the same topic words, as in the example. Leaving out the brand is fine, as Facebook suggests, if the rest matches.

The title, description, H1, and address don’t agree

We take the title’s content words, dropping filler and folding plurals, and see what share each of these uses: the meta description, the first H1, and the last part of the address, such as sourdough-starter in /bread/sourdough-starter.html. One that shares at least 34% agrees. If none does, SignalDNS marks it as needing attention; if some do, the answer names the ones that differ without flagging them. A missing part is left out, and a home page has no address words.

Google’s guide says that when a title doesn’t reflect the page, Google may write its own from headings and other text. The 34% threshold is our rule of thumb.

How to fix it: pick the words someone would search for, and use them in all four, as in the example.

Why Google shows a different title

Google builds title links from the <title>, headings, og:title, other prominent text, and links pointing to the page, among other sources. Its guide lists the usual reasons it replaces a title: one that’s half empty (| Site Name), out of date, inaccurate, or boilerplate shared by many pages; no clear main heading; a different language or writing system from the page; or a repeated site name, which it may leave out.

Google has to recrawl a page to notice a change, which its guide says may take a few days to a few weeks. Search for the page to see the title Google shows.

Setting it up in your CMS or framework

What we can’t tell from outside

We read one page’s HTML, so we can’t see the title link Google shows, which can vary by search, or where the page ranks. The width is an estimate. Characters outside our table of Arial widths count as a typical letter, or a full em for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Titles set by JavaScript aren’t seen.

Sources

Last reviewed .