A good meta title puts the main search term near the start, says plainly what the page offers, and fits in roughly 50 to 60 characters so it is not cut off. A good meta description is a one or two sentence summary of around 120 to 155 characters that matches what the searcher wants and gives a specific reason to click. Titles influence rankings a little and clicks a lot; descriptions do not affect rankings directly but often decide whether someone picks you or the result below.
Below we cover how Google uses each, practical lengths, the patterns we use for service, location and blog pages, why Google sometimes rewrites what you wrote, and how to find the pages worth fixing first.
Key takeaways
- The title tag is a ranking signal and the biggest factor in whether people click.
- Meta descriptions do not affect rankings, but a relevant one improves click-through.
- Lead with the term people search for, then add what makes your result the better choice.
- Every page needs a unique title and description written for that page.
- Google rewrites snippets it sees as vague, stuffed or mismatched with the page.
What Google does with titles and descriptions
The title tag sits in the page's HTML head and usually becomes the blue clickable headline in search results. Google uses it to understand the page, so it carries some ranking weight. It also appears in browser tabs and often when a link is shared.
The meta description is a suggestion for the grey text underneath. Google has said for years that it is not a ranking factor, and it will often show a different extract from the page if that matches the query better. Google's own documentation on title links and snippets is worth reading in full; it is shorter than most SEO blog posts about it.
So the jobs differ. The title has to be relevant enough to rank and appealing enough to be chosen. The description has one job: persuade.
Length: pixels, not characters
Google truncates by pixel width rather than a fixed character count, so a title full of wide capitals cuts off sooner than one in lower case. As a working rule:
- Titles: aim for 50 to 60 characters. Put anything important in the first 45 or so.
- Descriptions: aim for 120 to 155 characters on desktop. Mobile often shows less, so the opening clause should stand on its own.
Going over is not a penalty. A longer title still gets read for relevance; it is just shown with an ellipsis. The real cost is losing the end of your sentence, so do not leave the useful part until last.
How to write a title that earns the click
Start with the phrase people actually type, then add a reason to choose you. For most business pages we follow one of a handful of patterns:
| Page type | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Service page | Service + location | Brand | Boiler Installation in Walsall | Smith Heating |
| Product or category | Product + key detail | Brand | Oak Dining Tables, Made to Order | Hartwood |
| Guide | Question or task + angle | How to Register a Company in the UK: Step by Step |
| Home page | Brand + what you do + where | Smith Heating: Gas Engineers in the West Midlands |
A few habits that help:
- Use numbers and specifics when they are true: "same day", "Gas Safe registered", "from 2015".
- Match the intent. Someone searching "how to" wants a guide, not a sales page title.
- Keep the brand at the end unless it is well known enough to be the reason people click.
- Do not repeat the keyword. "Plumber Birmingham | Birmingham Plumbers | Plumbing Birmingham" looks like spam to people and to Google.
How to write a description people act on
Treat the description as a short advert written for the person who has just typed the query. It should confirm they have found the right thing and tell them what happens next.
Compare these two for a garage in Wolverhampton:
- Weak: "Welcome to our website. We are a family run business offering a wide range of services to our valued customers."
- Better: "MOT, servicing and repairs in Wolverhampton. Book online, wait in our lounge or use our free local collection. Open Saturdays."
The second one names the services, the town and three practical reasons to choose them, all in plain language. It also contains words a searcher is likely to have typed, which Google shows in bold.
Avoid copying the first paragraph of the page as the description. It is rarely written to be read out of context, and Google can pull that text itself if it wants it.
Why Google rewrites them, and how to reduce it
Google changes titles it considers unhelpful, and swaps descriptions far more often. The common triggers are:
- Titles that are very long, stuffed with keywords or identical across many pages
- Boilerplate such as "Home" or "Untitled" left by a theme
- A title that does not match the page's main heading
- A description that does not relate to the specific search
You cannot stop rewrites completely, and for descriptions that is fine; a query-matched extract can perform better than your own. To keep your title, make it accurate, unique and consistent with the H1. If the title says "Kitchen Fitters in Leeds" and the H1 says "Welcome", Google will often borrow the heading instead.
Setting them in WordPress and other platforms
On WordPress, Yoast SEO and Rank Math add a panel under each page where you set the SEO title and meta description, with a live preview. Use their templates for the defaults (for example %%title%% | %%sitename%%) so nothing goes out blank, then write custom ones for the pages that matter. Shopify, Wix and Squarespace each have equivalent fields in the page's SEO settings.
On a custom build, make the title and description editable fields in the CMS rather than hard-coded in templates. We have inherited plenty of sites where every page shared one description because the developer put it in the header file.
Which pages to fix first
Do not rewrite every snippet on a large site in one go. Open Google Search Console, go to the Performance report, and filter for pages with a high number of impressions but a low click-through rate compared with similar pages. Those are already being shown and are the easiest wins.
Change titles and descriptions on a handful of pages, note the date, and compare a month later. Rankings move around for other reasons, so look for a consistent change rather than a single day. If you need a wider plan, our guides on keyword research for small businesses and small business SEO in the UK cover the groundwork, and how Google ranking works explains where titles fit among everything else.
Common mistakes we fix on inherited sites
- Every page titled with the brand only, often because the theme ignores the SEO plugin. Check the page source, not just the plugin preview.
- Location pages with the town swapped and nothing else changed. Google notices, and so do people comparing results.
- Descriptions promising things the page does not deliver, such as "free quote in 60 seconds" on a page with a long form. That earns the click and then loses the visitor.
- Capital letters for emphasis. Shouty titles take up more pixel width and read as spam.
- Old dates. A title saying 2023 on an updated guide makes people assume the content is stale. If you put a year in, keep it current, or leave it out.
Most of these take minutes to fix once you know they are there. Crawling the site with a tool such as Screaming Frog will list every title and description in one spreadsheet, which makes duplicates and blanks easy to spot.
Is it worth doing for every page?
Not always. Your home page, core service pages, location pages and top blog posts deserve hand-written titles and descriptions. Tag archives, paginated pages and old news items can rely on sensible templates, and many of them should probably be set to noindex anyway.
Spend the effort where search traffic actually lands. A well-written snippet on a page that nobody searches for changes nothing.
Revisit the important ones when the page itself changes, for example when you add a new service, move premises or change opening hours.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a meta title be?
Aim for about 50 to 60 characters. Google truncates by pixel width, so keep the most important words in the first 45 characters or so.
Do meta descriptions help SEO rankings?
Not directly. Google does not use them as a ranking factor, but a relevant, specific description can improve how many people click your result.
Why is Google showing a different title for my page?
Google rewrites titles that look too long, repetitive, generic or inconsistent with the page content. Making the title accurate, unique and close to the main heading reduces how often it happens.
Should I include my business name in the meta title?
Usually yes, at the end, separated by a pipe or colon. Put it first only if your brand is well known enough that people search for it by name.
Can two pages have the same meta description?
They can, but they should not. Duplicate descriptions give searchers no reason to choose one page over another and make Google more likely to ignore them.
Want your search snippets reviewed?
We write titles and descriptions as part of our SEO service, starting from your Search Console data so the effort goes where it counts. Get in touch for a review of your key pages.
