Meta Title Length

Your page title is either too short or too long for optimal display in search results. Google typically shows 50-60 characters of your title tag in search listings, with a safe zone of 30-60 characters. Titles outside this range either get truncated with ellipses, cutting off critical keywords, or appear too brief to convey your page's value and relevance.

What Is Meta Title Length?

The meta title, also called the title tag, is an HTML element that defines your page's headline as it appears in search engine results, browser tabs, and social media shares. It lives in the <head> section of your HTML within a <title> tag.

Meta title length refers to the character count of this headline text. Search engines display titles based on pixel width, not strict character limits, but approximately 50-60 characters typically fit within Google's display constraints. Titles shorter than 30 characters often appear incomplete or miss keyword opportunities, while titles exceeding 60 characters get truncated.

This element serves as the clickable headline in search results, making it one of the most visible and influential on-page SEO elements. Users see it before anything else about your page, and it directly impacts whether they click through to your site.

<head>
  <title>Your 30-60 Character Title Goes Here</title>
</head>

The SEO Impact

Improperly sized title tags directly harm your visibility and click-through performance.

Truncated Messaging: Titles exceeding 60 characters get cut off with ellipses in search results. This often removes your most important keywords, brand name, or call-to-action that you positioned at the end. Users see incomplete information, reducing trust and click-through rates by 10-20% compared to complete titles.

Wasted Keyword Opportunities: Titles under 30 characters fail to utilize available space for secondary keywords, modifiers, or compelling phrases. Competitors using the full character range communicate more value and relevance, capturing clicks you could have earned with more comprehensive titles.

Ranking Signal Dilution: The title tag is one of the strongest on-page ranking factors. Too-short titles miss opportunities to include relevant keyword variations and semantic terms that help Google understand your page's topic breadth. This weakens topical relevance signals.

Poor Mobile Display: Mobile search results display even fewer characters than desktop, typically 50-55. Titles optimized for desktop at 70+ characters become severely truncated on mobile, where most searches now occur. This creates inconsistent user experiences across devices.

Common Causes

Several typical scenarios lead to title length issues.

Template-Based Title Generation: Many content management systems auto-generate titles using formulas like "Page Name | Category | Site Name." These templates often produce titles exceeding 60 characters by combining multiple long elements without considering total length constraints.

Keyword Stuffing Attempts: Some SEOs pack titles with every possible keyword variation, creating 80-100+ character titles that get severely truncated. For example, "Best Coffee Makers | Top Coffee Machines | Coffee Maker Reviews | Buy Coffee Makers Online" wastes characters on redundancy.

Overly Generic Short Titles: Writers sometimes create 15-20 character titles like "About Us" or "Services" without adding descriptive keywords or context. These ultra-brief titles waste valuable ranking and click-through potential.

Brand Name Over-Emphasis: Companies append long brand names or taglines to every title, consuming 20-30 characters before any descriptive keywords appear. For instance, "Our Company Name and Tagline Here | Actual Page Topic" prioritizes branding over user intent.

How Zignalify Detects This

Our crawler analyzes the title tag within your page's HTML head section. After fully rendering your page, including any JavaScript-generated or dynamically updated title elements, we extract the complete title text.

Zignalify measures the character count of your title tag and compares it against the optimal 30-60 character range. If your title contains fewer than 30 characters, we flag it as too short and missing keyword opportunities. If it exceeds 60 characters, we flag it as too long with risk of truncation.

We perform this validation on both desktop and mobile crawls because title display can vary slightly between devices. Our system also detects completely missing title tags, flagging them separately as critical errors requiring immediate attention.

The actual title text that triggered the flag gets captured in our reporting, allowing you to see exactly what needs adjustment without inspecting the page source code yourself.

Step-by-Step Fix

Correcting title length requires rewriting your headline to fit the optimal range while preserving keyword value.

Problem (Too Long - 78 characters):

<title>
  Email Marketing Automation Tools, Software, Platforms and Solutions for Small
  Business
</title>

Problem (Too Short - 18 characters):

<title>Email Marketing</title>

Solution (Optimal - 56 characters):

<title>Email Marketing Automation Tools for Small Business</title>

Platform-Specific Guidance:

WordPress: Navigate to the page or post editor and locate your SEO plugin's title field (Yoast SEO, Rank Math, or All in One SEO). Edit the "SEO Title" field to 30-60 characters. Most plugins display a live preview showing how your title appears in search results with a character counter. The indicator typically turns green when within optimal range. Save or update your page to apply changes.

Shopify: Go to your product, collection, or page editor and scroll to the "Search engine listing preview" section. Click "Edit website SEO" and modify the "Page title" field. Shopify shows a character count as you type. Aim for 30-60 characters for optimal display. Save your changes to update the title tag in your page's HTML.

Next.js/React: Update your title in the page component or layout metadata. For App Router, modify the title property in your metadata export object. For Pages Router, update the <title> tag within your <Head> component. Set up character count validation in your development workflow to catch issues before deployment.

// Next.js App Router
export const metadata = {
  title: "Your 30-60 Character Title",
};

Best Practices

Maximize title tag effectiveness with these optimization strategies.

Place Primary Keywords First: Position your most important keyword within the first 30 characters. This ensures it displays even if the title gets truncated and signals topic relevance to both users and search engines immediately.

Include Branding Strategically: If including your brand name, place it at the end separated by a pipe or dash, for instance, "Primary Keyword Description | Brand." This prioritizes user intent while maintaining brand presence. Omit branding on non-commercial pages if it pushes you over 60 characters.

Use Compelling Modifiers: Add power words like "Guide," "Best," "Complete," "Free," or "2025" to increase click appeal without excessive length. These modifiers communicate value and freshness within tight character constraints.

Make Every Word Count: Eliminate filler words like "the," "and," or "of" when possible without sacrificing readability. "Best Coffee Makers Small Kitchens" is more keyword-rich than "The Best Coffee Makers for Small Kitchens" while remaining clear.

Create Unique Titles for Each Page: Never duplicate title tags across multiple pages. Each page needs a custom title reflecting its specific content and target keywords. Duplicate titles confuse search engines about which page to rank for which queries.

Test in SERP Simulators: Use SEO tools or plugins that show live SERP previews as you write. These tools visualize exactly how your title appears in search results, helping you optimize both character count and pixel width for perfect display.

FAQs

What's more important, character count or pixel width?

Pixel width is what Google actually uses to determine truncation, but character count serves as a reliable proxy. Different letters have different widths, "W" and "M" are wider than "i" and "l." The 30-60 character guideline accounts for this by providing a safe range that works for most title compositions. If your title uses many wide characters, aim for 50-55 characters. For narrow characters, you can push toward 60-65.

Should I include my brand name in every title?

Include your brand name only if you have strong brand recognition or remaining characters after describing page content. For branded searches where users specifically seek your company, including the brand name helps. For informational queries, descriptive keywords matter more than branding. If adding your brand pushes you over 60 characters, omit it, Google often appends your site name automatically anyway.

Yes, and you should. Use Open Graph meta tags (og:title) for social media sharing, which have different character limits and audiences. Your SEO title should optimize for search engines and SERP clicks (30-60 characters), while your social title can be longer and more engaging for Facebook or LinkedIn feeds (60-90 characters). These serve different purposes and platforms.