Keeping your character count for the page title (aka: META Title) around 60 characters has been touted as a best-in-class or recommended tactic for many years. It is also the focus of nearly every SEO audit tool – but exceeding 60-characters will not ding your SEO, in fact, the opposite might actually happen… here’s why.
The META Title (blue link on search results pages) has a fixed width, looking something like the red box below. Because of this hard-stop limit, only 65ish characters display. Different characters occupy more space than others, a “W” vs. “i” for example, which is why this is a wishy-washy number.
So, if you have more characters than, say, 60, they likely will not display – only search engines will see them. As you may imagine, these could impact your visibility and rank on them.
GEEK NOTE: Search engines see the measure in pixels – not characters – with each pixel the equivalent of 1/96” and the 60-character META limit being 554 pixels of visible text.
Keeping within 60 is a solid recommendation, don’t get me wrong, it guarantees humans will see the message you are trying to convey. But if you manage to max-out your character limit and can add a few more words – go ahead – it’s perfectly safe to do so. You just might find yourself smiling when your SEO audit report dings you for it – and you know you’ve just beat them – and your competition at the game.
Incidentally, using too few characters is also a concern – a #marketingshorts article for another day 🙂
(This is the first of our #MarketingShorts series of short-topic marketing articles that can be read in under 60-seconds. Subscribe today, and you’ll never miss one!)
