Free tool Meta description checker and SERP preview, measured in pixels
Search engines cut titles and descriptions by width, not by character count. Type yours in and see the result as it would roughly appear in Google, Bing or Baidu, with the width in pixels and the exact words that fall off the end.
- Measured in pixels
- Desktop and mobile
- Runs locally
Check a title and description
The sample title is too long on purpose. Edit any field and the preview, the width bars and the checklist update as you type.
The text of your <title> element.
The content of <meta name="description">. Leave it empty to see what happens without one.
Shown as a breadcrumb under the site name in Google.
Optional. Google and Baidu show a site name; without one the domain is used.
Optional. Matching words are bolded in the description, as Google does.
Search result preview
An approximation of the result layout. Real results can add dates, ratings, sitelinks or images.
Width used
Title
776 / 600 px
84 characters
Cut off: … Visitors and Bots Kept Separate | TapCub
Description
1146 / 920 px
187 characters
Cut off: … your numbers stay honest. Free plan, cookieless by default.
Checklist
- FixThe title is about 776 px wide and this layout shows about 600 px, so it is cut after “…altime Visitors and Bots”. Move the important words to the front or shorten it.
- FixThe description is about 1146 px wide and this layout shows about 920 px, so it is cut after “…ne, so your numbers stay”.
Share these inputs: the values go after the # in the link, so they never reach a server.
https://tapcub.com/tools/serp-preview
Version v1.0Updated Update history
What the preview tells you
Three things matter: whether the title survives, whether the description says something useful before it stops, and whether the result would be shown at all as you wrote it.
Width, not characters
The bars show width used against the space available. Letters differ a lot: an “i” in Arial is a quarter of an em, a “W” almost a full em. That is why a 60-character title can fit while a 57-character one in capitals does not.
The cut point
When text is too wide, the preview shows where it ends and the struck-through words show what falls off. If the brand or the key benefit is in the cut part, rewrite rather than trim: put the words a searcher is looking for first.
Desktop versus mobile
Mobile results wrap the title over about two lines, so they hold more of it than desktop. Descriptions are the opposite: phones show less. If a title only fits on mobile, plan for the desktop cut.
The checklist
Fix items are things that will visibly cost you: a cut title, a missing description, an invalid URL. Notes are softer: short text, missing search words, http. Green items are within the usual range.
Every limit here is an approximation. Google’s documentation says only that title links and snippets are truncated “as needed, typically to fit the device width”, and both can be rewritten from page content.
Three steps
Nothing to install, nothing to click to run.
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1
Paste the title and description
Copy them from your CMS or from the page source: the
<title>element and thecontentof the description meta tag. -
2
Pick engine and device
Check Google desktop first, then mobile. If you get search traffic from China, switch to Baidu: Chinese text is measured in full-width characters.
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3
Rewrite until it fits
Watch the bar and the cut-off words. Add the query you want to rank for to see whether it gets bolded. Copy the share link to show the result to a colleague.
How long titles and descriptions can be
No search engine publishes a hard limit. The widths below are what SEO tools commonly use and what this preview checks against. Treat them as targets with a margin, not as rules.
- Width is the sum of each character’s width in the result font; this tool uses Arial’s metrics
- CJK characters are one em wide, roughly twice an average Latin letter
- Google picked the page’s own
<title>about 87% of the time after its 2021 update; the rest are rewritten
| Layout | Title | Description | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google desktop | ≈ 600 px (20 px Arial) | ≈ 920 px (14 px) | Common tool convention; Google publishes no number |
| Google mobile | ≈ 680 px, about two lines | ≈ 680 px | Same; mobile shows longer titles, often 70–80 characters (Zyppy) |
| Bing | Same widths as Google | Same widths as Google | Bing publishes no pixel limits |
| Baidu desktop | ≈ 30 CJK characters | ≈ 78 CJK characters | Baidu Search Academy (2014): titles keep the first 60 bytes |
| Baidu mobile | ≈ 30 CJK characters | ≈ 60 CJK characters | Observed values, not published |
Same length, different width
Five titles measured for Google desktop (20 px Arial, about 600 px available). Character count is a poor guide; width decides.
| Title | Characters | Width | Shown in full? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website Analytics Without Cookies | TapCub | 42 | 396 px | Yes |
| Simple illustrated tips for little kitchens, flats and lofts | 60 | 467 px | Yes, with room to spare |
| WOMEN’S WATERPROOF WINTER BOOTS - FREE RETURNS | MEGASHOP | 57 | 711 px | No, cut after “FREE” |
| The sample title in the tool above | 84 | 776 px | No, cut after “Visitors and Bots” |
| 网站统计分析工具：实时访客、来源渠道一屏看清 | TapCub | 31 | 527 px | Yes, but 31 characters use most of the space |
The lowercase title with narrow letters is three characters longer than the all-caps one and 244 px narrower. The Chinese title has about half as many characters as the English ones and still uses 88% of the width.
Why titles and snippets come out wrong
Most problems are not about length at all, but about what is at the front and whether the search engine believes the text.
Counting characters
A “60 characters” rule fails for capitals, wide letters and Chinese text. Measure width, and keep the important words in the first half anyway.
Brand first, topic last
Starting every title with the company name means the topic is what gets cut. Lead with what the page is about; put the brand at the end.
The same description everywhere
Template descriptions repeated across pages tell the search engine nothing, so it writes its own snippet. Write one per important page.
Stuffing keywords
A title packed with variations reads badly and is a classic reason for Google to rewrite it. One clear phrase beats five repetitions.
See which titles actually earn clicks
A preview tells you how a result looks. Search data tells you whether people click it. TapCub puts both next to your page analytics.
Search Console and Bing in one view
Connect Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster for clicks, impressions and average position by query, page, country and device.
Learn morePosition × CTR map
Pages that rank in the top 10 but have a below-median click-through rate stand out: those are the titles and descriptions to rewrite first.
Learn moreContent decay flags
Pages that used to rank and are now slipping are flagged, next to their entry and exit rates.
Learn moreSERP preview questions
Still have a question?
Chat with the team behind TapCub — we usually reply within a few hours on business days.
How long should a title tag be?
There is no official limit. Google says title links are truncated to fit the device width. On desktop that is roughly 600 pixels, which works out to about 50–60 characters of normal text, fewer in capitals. Keep the words that matter in the first 50 or so characters and the title survives either way.
How long should a meta description be?
Again there is no official limit. Common working numbers are about 920 pixels on desktop and 680 on mobile, roughly 150–160 and 110–120 characters. Google often replaces the description with text from the page that better matches the query, so write it as a summary that still works when cut.
Why does the tool measure pixels instead of characters?
Because the result is cut where the text runs out of room. In Arial a capital W is almost four times as wide as a lowercase i, and a Chinese character is one full em. Two titles with the same character count can differ by over 200 pixels, as the example above shows.
Why is Google showing a different title from mine?
Google generates title links from several sources: the <title> element, the main heading, og:title, anchor text and more. After its 2021 update it used the title element about 87% of the time. It tends to rewrite titles that are very short, very long, stuffed with keywords, the same across many pages, or that do not match the page.
Is the preview exactly what Google will show?
No. It is a close approximation of the layout and the cut point. Real results can add a date in front of the description, star ratings, sitelinks, images or a different site name, and Google adjusts its layout often. Use it to catch titles that are clearly too long, not to chase single pixels.
How is Baidu different?
Baidu’s own guidance from its Search Academy says titles should stay within 60 bytes, about 30 Chinese characters, because the rest is dropped. Its 2022 basic-information guideline suggests a homepage summary of around 50 characters. Choose Baidu in the tool to measure in full-width characters and bytes.
Does title length affect rankings?
Google has not said that length is a ranking factor. The cost of a long title is indirect: the cut version may lose the words people scan for, and long titles are rewritten more often. Zyppy’s study of about 81,000 titles found even the least-rewritten length band was rewritten about 40% of the time, and titles over 70 characters almost always.
Is my text sent anywhere?
No. Measuring and the preview run in your browser. If you copy the share link, the fields are stored in the part of the URL after #, which browsers do not send to servers.
Update history
New features, fixes and data refreshes for this tool, newest first.
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· v1.0
LaunchedFirst release.
Missing something or found an error? Tell us — requests that come up often go into the next update. All tool updates
Watch titles turn into clicks
Connect Search Console and Bing Webmaster and see impressions, clicks and position next to the visits each page receives.