Title Length Checker

How the Title Length Checker works

Title length checker: measure pixels, not characters

The title tag is usually the biggest, bluest line a searcher sees before deciding whether to click. If it runs too wide, Google cuts it at the last whole word that fits and adds an ellipsis. The part that survives might be the brand and half a phrase, or it might be the keyword with the reason to click lost. The well-known "60 characters" rule is only a rounded version of the real limit, which is a width. On desktop, Google sets titles in about 20-pixel Arial inside a column roughly 600 pixels wide. Descriptions get about two lines of 14-pixel text, around 990 pixels.

Why characters are a poor guide

Letters in a proportional font vary a lot in width. At the 20-pixel title size, these are the Arial widths the checker uses:

A capital W is more than four times as wide as an i. Sixty characters of lower-case text with plenty of i, l and t can come in under 500 pixels, while fifty capitals can pass 650.

Worked examples

• "Mortgage Calculator — Monthly Payments, Interest and Overpayments" is 65 characters and 628 pixels. It shows as "Mortgage Calculator — Monthly Payments, Interest and …". The loss is small, but the word that set it apart from rival pages is the one that went.
• "WHAT IS THE BEST MORTGAGE CALCULATOR FOR UK HOMEBUYERS" is only 54 characters but 678 pixels, because capitals are wide. It loses "HOMEBUYERS", and it is also flagged as all capitals.
• "little lists: title tips" is 24 characters and 154 pixels. Nothing is cut, but it is flagged as short, with room for a qualifier.

How the checker decides

Each line is trimmed and runs of spaces are collapsed to one. The widths of its characters are then added up at the right font size. Digits count as a standard width, and characters missing from the table, such as accented letters, symbols or CJK text, count as a slightly wide average. That makes the estimate err towards caution, so a title that passes here should pass in the results too. The checks then run in this order:

1. Over the pixel limit means truncated, and the note shows the cut-off text Google would display. 2. Within the pixels but over 60 characters (160 for descriptions) is still counted as too long. Mobile layouts and other search engines may cut it. 3. Under 30 characters (70 for descriptions) is flagged as short. 4. Style flags follow: all capitals, a separator at the start or end, more than two separators, generic words like Home or Untitled on a very short title, and duplicates of an earlier line.

How to read the result

• Titles or Descriptions is how many non-blank lines you pasted.
• OK counts lines with no notes at all. On a well-kept site this should be nearly all of them.
• Too long counts lines over the pixel limit, plus lines that fit the pixels but exceed the character guide. Fix the truncated ones first.
• Too short counts lines under the minimum. Treat these as prompts, not errors.
• Limit repeats the width and character guide being applied, so you can confirm which mode is on.

The table below the stats gives each line's character count, pixel width and every note that applies. Scan the Width column to find the worst offenders on a large site.

Where title length matters

• Site audits. Crawlers such as Screaming Frog export every title on a site. Pasting that column here finds truncations and duplicates in one pass.
• Title rewrites. In August 2021 Google began replacing more title tags with text from the page. It later said the page's own title was used in about 87% of cases. Keyword-stuffed, over-long and boilerplate titles are the ones most often replaced.
• Shop and CMS templates. Templates that add a category and brand to every product name push long product titles over the limit. Check a sample of the longest names before changing a template.
• Social and browser tabs. The same title appears in browser tabs, bookmarks and shared links, where it is cut even shorter.

Tips and pitfalls

• Put the important words first. If truncation happens, the start survives. Lead with the subject and push the brand to the end.
• Leave room for the brand. Google often adds " - Site Name" to titles that lack one. If yours leave it out, keep about 100 pixels spare.
• Avoid capitals for emphasis. They are the widest letters and invite a rewrite.
• One separator is enough. "Topic – Brand" reads as a title; four pipes read as a keyword list.
• Unique beats clever. Duplicates split clicks between your own pages.

Once the widths pass, preview the full result with the SERP preview tool. The meta tag checker confirms the title and h1 agree. Draft snippets with the meta description generator.

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