SERP Preview Tool
Preview how your page title and description appear in Google search results.
Written by Anil Gautam · Updated
How does the preview shorten long titles?
The preview cuts by character count. A title longer than 60 characters keeps its first 57, loses any trailing space and gains three dots. Descriptions follow the same rule at 160 characters, keeping the first 157. The desktop and mobile cards show the same shortened text; the mobile card is narrower and uses a slightly smaller title font. Everything updates as you type, and nothing leaves your browser.
Take the 72-character title "Vegetable Lasagna Recipe with Spinach, Ricotta and Homemade Tomato Sauce". The counter reads 72 / 60 in red and the preview shows "Vegetable Lasagna Recipe with Spinach, Ricotta and Homema...", with the last word cut in half. Shortened to "Vegetable Lasagna Recipe with Spinach and Ricotta", the title is 49 characters long, the counter turns green and the whole title fits.
What do the red and green counters mean?
The title counter is green from 30 to 60 characters and red outside that range, including when the box is empty. For the description, green means 70 to 160 characters. Both counters count every character, spaces included, along with separators such as the | that many sites put before the brand name. Google accepts short titles, so treat a red count under 30 as a hint that there is room for the product type or your brand name.
Google measures the available space in pixels, so the character limits are approximations. A title with many wide letters such as W and M, or one written in capitals, can be cut earlier than the preview shows, and one full of narrow letters like i and l can run past 60 characters and still fit. Google can also swap in a different title or description taken from the page, which happens more often when your description does not match what the person searched for.
How should I use the preview before publishing?
Put the words people search for near the start of the title, since the end is what gets cut. Write a description for every page, because when the meta description is missing Google builds the snippet from text on the page. The URL line prints exactly what you type, while real results show a site name and a shortened path, so use it to spot long or messy addresses.
When both cards look right, Meta Tag Generator turns the same title and description into tags for your page head, and Open Graph & Twitter Card Preview shows how the link will look when shared.