Page Title (Meta descriptions) length... how strict are you?

[JohnW-UK]

I have just had a conversation with a client... the gist was this...

Is it more important to stay under the 55-60 characters OR go over a bit and have the page title make sense and include the clients company name.

The same argument for meta description. I have a client insisting on 55-60 length but the keywords are long and if we use the primary keyword phrase the length is 44 if we use the keyword phrase and add the company name it becomes 64. This is with us trimming it a bit.

Anyone else discussed this before?

[Dr-Pete]

I'd tend to agree. It won't harm you to go over, but since no one's going to see it, what's the point, generally. Now, if you feel thinks are being cut off arbitrarily (like the name of a product) and those keywords should be included somehow, fine - go over the limit. You can potentially rank for those terms and they may show up in other places. Some directories, social networks, etc. read the title tags, too.

If it's just ego, though, like a long brand name, I'd suggest letting it go. Unless you're a really big brand, it's not going to matter that much, and you're likely to rank for your brand anyway. If the brand is getting cut off, then name recognition won't help your CTR anyway.

Usability research definitely shows that people pay much more attention to the front of a headline, and even just the first two words, so even if a longer title "makes sense", people may not care or even see it. So, sometimes, I think we obsess over getting something just right that may not end up mattering that much, practically.

Personally, I'd pick a different battle with the client, and maybe just keep a few long that are critically important.

[BradsDeals]

FWIW, Google indexes title tags way beyond what it displays, possibly up to 164 characters. I've always considered that a valuable bit of intel to consider. (The post I linked to is ancient by SEO standards but I'd imagine it's still relevant, some nice work from Hugo Guzman.)

[ClaytonJ]

We discuss it all the time, good topic.  The new WMT's search console has been enlightening. We have enough data to show that professional Titles, extended to or close to the maximum 512 pixels - has a better CTR on mobile than short or truncated versions. The Meta description is more important for desktop.

In short it it best to professionalize both.  The Title can extend to 512 pixels before it truncates. There are a number of free tools where this can be measured prior to implementation.  The meta description is not clear but up to 156 characters google seems comfortable in not truncating - however the meta description is more loosely used by google. Sometimes google insert a date .. and that undoes all the hard work.

In summary they are serious business and not to be taken lightly given the combined impact on seo and clickability. So in my view if the target client is mobile based stay within the 512 pixels. If desktop roll the dice...

Hope that assists.

[NEdocs]

To be honest, it does not make a huge difference. The reason for staying within the 55-60 character limit is so that your title does not get truncated in the SERPs. While it is not necessarily detrimental, it could impact click-through rates. Keep in mind - this limit is still not perfect. Depending on the pixel width of the letters used, you could still end up losing some of your title. Keep your keywords near the front, keep it natural, and you will be fine.

Tool for checking SERP titles: https://moz.com/blog/new-title-tag-guidelines-preview-tool

As for company name, it really only helps if the company has strong brand recognition. If no one is performing searches based on or including their name...inserting it into every page will not help the cause. Generally speaking, a search for a company name will yield results including their website regardless of company name placement in their title/description tags. Stick it on the homepage, contact page, about us, etc. - otherwise focus on describing the intent of the page and let Google do its thing.

[CleverPhD]

Title tags - put your main keywords for the page first, or near the beginning.  That helps google know what the page is about.  The number of characters varies as Google does not look at characters per se, but pixel width.  Good article by Dr P.

https://moz.com/blog/new-title-tag-guidelines-preview-tool

You just have to watch what gets cut off at a certain point.  Beyond that length the title is getting too long for readability anyway and if you need a longer title to explain a page, just put the longer one in the H1, but try and be sensible.  If the client insists on putting the company name and you are not trying to rank for the company name just do something like

Keyword and keyword is really key here because it ranks good! | Company Name

The company name is at the end and will get hidden in the serps anyway, and you have your key word(s) or phrase in at the start.

Meta description is about conversion and click through rate vs ranking.  Focus on getting the best call to action with a keyword somewhere in there first.  I would say, this could be a good place to sneak in the company name, after you get your call to action right.  Your limit is larger there (about 150-160) so you have more room before the cutoff.   I tend to worry less about keywords and think about searcher intent and see if I can match that to get them to select my page among others in the search result.  Another good article by Dr P

https://moz.com/blog/i-cant-drive-155-meta-descriptions-in-2015

Cheers!