How Long Should Your Page Title Tag Be
Google measures pixels, not characters. Here is how to write a title that survives the crop on desktop and mobile.
The conventional advice is under sixty characters. The accurate advice is under 580 pixels on desktop, which is not the same thing, and the difference explains why so many titles that pass a character check still get cut off.
Why pixels rather than characters
Google renders result titles in a proportional font. A lowercase i takes a fraction of the width of an uppercase W. Sixty characters of narrow lowercase letters can fit comfortably while fifty characters of wide capitals overflow the container.
Search engines have published a pixel budget for years, and title tags are truncated near 600 pixels on desktop. The practical target is 580 pixels to leave a margin for the ellipsis.
What the numbers look like in practice
| Character count | What usually happens |
|---|---|
| Under 40 | Fits entirely, wastes space |
| 50 to 60 | Fits in most cases, the usual target |
| 60 to 70 | Often truncated, depends on letter widths |
| Over 70 | Almost always truncated |
Mobile changes the budget
Mobile results show a title in a narrower container at a similar font size. Where desktop allows 580 pixels, mobile is often closer to the equivalent of 50 characters. Because a growing share of search happens on phones, writing to the mobile limit is the safer default.
Structure that survives truncation
- Lead with the phrase people search, not the brand
- Put the brand at the end, where the crop is harmless
- Keep the differentiating detail within the first forty characters
- Use a separator such as a vertical bar between page topic and brand
- Skip openers such as How to learn everything about
Does Google always use your title
No. Google rewrites a large share of title tags, often pulling a more relevant phrase from the H1 or the body text when the query differs from the written title. That does not make titles pointless, because the rewritten version is chosen from your page, and a well written title gives the algorithm better raw material.
Write the first forty characters as if nothing after them will ever be shown, because on a phone that is often the truth.
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