Google search result preview
The title and description are the only part of your website most searchers ever read. Type yours in and see how they look in the results on a phone and on a desktop, where Google will cut them short, and what to fix.
Why these two lines matter so much
For most people who search for what you do, your title and description are the whole of your website. They read them in the results, compare them with the other results on the page, and decide in a second or two whether to click. You write both, and Google usually shows what you wrote.
What a good one looks like
- Title: what, where, who.The service first, then the place, then your business name. “Boiler Repair Exeter | Harbour & Hale Heating” tells a searcher more than “Home | Harbour & Hale” ever will.
- Front-load it. On a phone the end of a long title is the part that gets cut. Put the words that win the click at the start.
- Description: why you. What you do, where, and one reason to pick you over the result below. End with what they can do next.
- One per page. Every page should have its own. Ten pages with the same title look like one page to Google, and to the person searching.
Common questions
Why are the limits in pixels, not characters? Because Google cuts results off by how wide the text is on screen, not by how many letters it has. A title full of narrow letters fits more characters than one full of capitals and wide letters like W and M. Character counts are a rough guide at best.
Does the length of my title affect my ranking? Not directly. What it affects is whether people click. A title that is cut off before it says what you do, or a description that trails away mid sentence, loses clicks to the result underneath it, even when you rank higher.
Why does Google show something different from what I wrote? Google rewrites titles and descriptions when it thinks they do not match the page, or when they are stuffed with keywords. The best way to keep yours is to write them for a person: say plainly what the page is about, and make sure the page says the same thing.
Where do I change my title and description? It depends on how the site was built. WordPress sites usually have an SEO box under each page, added by a plugin. Squarespace and Wix both have an SEO section in each page's settings. If you cannot find it, whoever built the site will know.
Showing up, but nobody clicking?
Titles and descriptions are one part of it. Where you rank, whether you appear on the map, and what your Google Business Profile says are the rest. That is what our SEO work covers.
Built by Charged Studio, a web design studio in Devon. More on getting found in our guide to how to get found on Google.
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