Type or paste a page’s title tag and meta description, and the checker measures each one in pixels, shows a mock Google result and warns you where the text will be cut. “Meta” here means the meta description in your page’s HTML, nothing to do with Meta the company; for Facebook and Instagram ad text, use the ad copy character counter instead. Everything runs in your browser, and nothing you type is saved or sent.
How to use the checker
- Paste the page’s web address. It only shapes the grey breadcrumb line in the preview, so a draft address is fine.
- Type the title as you would set it in your CMS or SEO plugin. If your site adds the business name automatically, add it here too, because it takes up the same space.
- Paste the meta description.
- Watch the bars. They fill as you type and turn to a warning colour once the text runs past the width Google usually shows.
- Read the note under the preview, then edit until the words that matter sit inside the limit.
Why the limit is in pixels, not characters
Google does not cut titles at a set number of characters. It cuts them when they run out of room on the results page, and room is measured in pixels. A capital W is roughly three times as wide as a lower-case i, so two titles of 55 characters can behave quite differently. That is why the checker reports both: the character count is useful for your own notes, while the pixel width decides what people actually see on the search results page.
The checker measures text in Arial at font sizes close to Google’s desktop results and compares the width with roughly 600 pixels for a title and 920 pixels for a description. Treat these as working limits. Google does not publish them, and it adjusts its layout from time to time.
Writing a title that survives the cut
Put the subject first
Start with what the page is about in the words a customer would search: “Bookkeeping for Leeds small businesses”, not “Welcome to Smith & Daughters”. If anything gets trimmed, let it be the business name at the end. Long registered names lose little by dropping “Ltd” or “Limited” from the title.
Match the intent, then add one reason to choose you
A title should promise exactly what the page delivers. If the searcher wants a price, a location or a how-to, say so, which is the point of matching search intent. After that, one specific detail such as “fixed monthly fee” or “same-week appointments” does more work than adjectives like “best” or “leading”.
One title per page, and no two alike
When two pages carry near-identical titles, Google has to guess which one to show, and both can suffer. If you find yourself writing the same title twice, the two pages are probably competing for the same search, a problem known as keyword cannibalisation, and the fix is in the pages rather than the wording.
Descriptions earn clicks, not rankings
Google has said for years that the meta description does not affect rankings. What it does affect is whether someone picks your result over the one above it, so it is copy for a person, not for a crawler. Say what the page offers, who it is for and what happens next, and put the most useful part in the first 120 characters or so, because shorter displays cut earlier.
Google often rewrites descriptions, and sometimes titles, using text from the page when it judges that a better match for the search. A clear, accurate description that reflects the page gives it the least reason to. Very short descriptions are the ones most often replaced, which is why the checker flags anything under 70 characters.
What the checker cannot tell you
- Mobile layouts. Phones lay results out differently and the visible length varies by screen, so the desktop width is the safer target rather than an exact prediction.
- Whether Google will use your text. Only a live result shows that. Search for the page and compare.
- Dates, prices and rich results. Google can add a date or other details next to the description, which takes up some of the space.
- Whether people click. After a change has been live for a few weeks, compare the page’s click-through rate before and after in Google Search Console.
When the titles fit but the page still is not found
Titles and descriptions matter most once a page is already ranking. If yours is not showing at all, the cause usually lies elsewhere: the page targets the wrong term, another page on the site is competing with it, or the content does not answer the search. Working through those, page by page, is what my on-page SEO service covers. If you would like me to look at your site first, request a free SEO audit and I will tell you which pages I would rewrite first and why.