Meta title checker.

How does the meta title checker work?

The meta title checker counts a title's characters and measures its width in pixels, in Arial at 20 pixels, which is close to how Google sets titles in its desktop results. Width is the number to watch, because Google cuts long titles to fit the screen, not at a set number of characters. A title full of wide letters such as M and W runs out of room before one full of i and l.

The description is checked by its characters, against the 120 to 155 guide, and the preview cuts it at 155, the most IvI SEO allows. Every figure here is an estimate: Google can change its layout, phones show a different amount, and Google sometimes shows its own text instead. Check your most important pages in a real search as well.

What lengths does it check against?

• Meta titles: about 50 to 60 characters as a guide, with around 600 pixels on desktop as the ceiling. There's no published limit, so a title over 60 characters can be fine if it fits by width and has a reason to be long. How to write meta titles for a local business has the reasoning.
• Meta descriptions: around 120 to 155 characters, with the main point in the first 120, because less fits on a phone. There's no official maximum either. Do meta descriptions still matter? covers what to put in them.

Google can still show a different title from the one you wrote, for example when yours is half empty, out of date or repeated across pages. Google sets out when that happens in its guidance on title links.

What does the local title check look for?

Add the main service, the town and the business name, and the meta title checker looks at the order IvI SEO uses for local businesses: the service and town first, then one helpful detail, then the business name where it fits. It flags a service or town that's missing or past the cut, and a business name that comes before them, because a long title loses its end first. A made-up title that passes every check is "Boiler Repair Harrogate | Same-Day Callouts | Smith Plumbing".

For a whole site, a crawl (a tool that visits every page and lists its title and length) does the counting, and AI can rewrite titles and descriptions in bulk, as long as something other than the AI checks the result.

Want your page titles checked?

Checking and rewriting titles and descriptions page by page is part of IvI SEO's local SEO service. If yours haven't been looked at in a while, take a look at how I can help. I'll tell you honestly which pages are worth the effort.