Free generator · Content and Writing
Google SERP Snippet Preview.
Google cuts titles on rendered pixel width, not character count, which is why every sixty-character rule is wrong. This measures the real width on desktop and mobile and previews the result as it will appear.
Only the breadcrumb is shown, the way Google renders it above the title.
Using less than half the space available. Not an error, but it is free room you are not taking.
Using less than half the space available. Not an error, but it is free room you are not taking.
Preview
Your page title appears here
Google will write its own description from the page when none is supplied, or when the one supplied does not match the search.
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What this tool measures
Type a title and a description and see the result Google will draw, measured against the width it actually truncates at.
Every rule of thumb you have been given for this is wrong in the same way. Google does not count characters, it renders a string in Arial and cuts it when it exceeds the container width. “Wide Milling Machines” and “lilliputian item list” are both twenty-one characters and nowhere near the same width. So the bar under each field is pixels. The character count is shown too, because that is what your CMS field and your content brief are specified in, but when the two disagree the pixels are right.
How to use it
Write the title first and watch the bar rather than the count. Aim to land inside the limit with a little room, because Google occasionally renders at slightly different widths and a title that only just fits is a title that sometimes does not.
Switch to mobile. The mobile container is meaningfully narrower and it is where most searches happen, so a title that fits on desktop and truncates on mobile is truncating for the majority of the people who see it.
The description is worth the effort even though Google frequently rewrites it. Your version is most likely to be shown on branded and navigational searches — the ones where someone already knows who you are and is deciding whether to click you or a directory listing above you.
How to read the result
A bar in the green means it fits. A bar in the amber means you are using less than half the space available, which is not an error but is free room you are not taking. A bar in the red means the tail is cut, so nothing load-bearing can live at the end.
The notes below the preview are about the writing rather than the width: a title with no separator, a description that repeats the title, a phrase used twice. None of them are ranking factors. All of them are the difference between a result someone clicks and one they scroll past.
If the title is truncating and it ends with the brand name, that is usually fine — brand at the end is what should be sacrificed. If it is truncating before the thing that makes the page distinctive, reorder it.
What to do next
Copy the link to bring the exact wording into a review, or copy as text to paste into a brief. The state travels in the URL, so a shared link opens showing what you saw.
Then check the live page with the meta tag checker to confirm what you wrote is what shipped. The gap between the two is larger than anyone expects, because between them sit a CMS field limit, a template that appends a brand suffix, and an SEO plugin with its own opinion.
Questions people ask
What is the ideal title length?
There is no character number that answers this, which is the point of the tool. On desktop the container is around 600 pixels and on mobile around 460. In practice that lands most English titles somewhere between 50 and 60 characters, but a title full of wide letters breaks earlier and one full of narrow letters runs longer.
Why does Google show a different description from mine?
Because it writes one from the page when it judges that a better answer to the specific query. That happens on the majority of results and is not a fault. Your description is the one shown when it is the best available summary, which is most reliably on searches for your own name.
Does adding the year to a title help?
It helps click-through on anything people expect to be current, and it becomes a liability the moment the year turns and nobody updates it. If you use it, put it in a template you can update in one place rather than typing it into thirty titles.
Should the brand name go in every title?
At the end, separated by a pipe or a dash, and only where there is room. It costs you characters on every page in exchange for recognition. On a well-known brand it earns its place; on an unknown one it is spending your most valuable space on a word nobody is searching for yet.
Where to go from here
- Meta Tag and Open Graph Checker — Check the page you published actually carries what you wrote here.
- Keyword Density Checker — Confirm the phrase in the title appears in the page itself.
- URL Slug Generator — Build the URL to match the title while you are here.
The guide behind this tool
Built by GoDesign FZE, who write and ship page copy that converts.
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