Meta titles
Meta titles, or title tags, appear on the search result pages as the title of your content (and in browser tabs and link previews, too).
Meta titles often differ from the H1 or title on the article page. For instance, I sometimes add the business name at the end of the meta title. This helps build awareness for the brand by exposing the name to more people.
However, if you struggle to write a shorter meta title which is advised (read more on this below), then the first thing I’d do is cut the brand name. It’s far more important to use the targeted keyword in a snappy meta title than to include the business name.
Note 🗒️
Meta title, page title, SEO title or SEO page title, and title tag, are all the same thing. The most technically accurate is to say title tag, but people will understand you if you like to use another one. I tend to refer to it by saying meta title or page title.
The meta title should:
- Be between 50-60 characters
- Include the target keyword
- Be unique for each page on your website
- Optionally be a bit different than the H1 of the page content but convey the same message
The length suggestion for the meta title is not a hard rule, but the best estimate you can aim for because if it’s longer than 50-60 characters, Google usually truncates it in the search results by adding dot, dot, dot. This way, you lose the information you wanted to put out there and the likeliness of people clicking on the link also decreases.
✨Extra tip: Since Google can truncate your meta title, make sure to use your target keyword toward the start of the title.
Meta descriptions
Meta descriptions appear below the meta titles on the search result pages. These are not a direct ranking factor but are a great spot to include secondary keywords. Meta descriptions should summarize the content and serve as a teaser to convince people to click through to the page from Google.
The meta description should:
- Be around 105 characters or 680 pixels
- Include the targeted keyword(s)
- Include a call-to-action (CTA)
- Be unique for each page on your site
Why 105 characters or 680 pixels?
This is where Google cuts off the meta descriptions on mobile. On desktop, this happens around 960 pixels and approximately 152 characters, but of course, we should take the mobile estimate as the rule of thumb here to make sure that we’re not cut off on any device. Even this way, the appearance of the meta titles and descriptions can vary based on the different screen sizes of mobile devices.
| How can I write an appropriate-length meta title and description? In any document editing software, you’ll be able to check the word count for both, but there are free tools for the same purpose. I like to use Mangools’ Google SERP simulator which gives you a preview of how your content would appear on the search result page and lets you edit your title and description, too. On the top right, you can switch between desktop and mobile view to make sure those characters are not too many and that everything will be viewable once Google ranks your content with that meta title and description. |