Headline length checker
How long is your headline, in characters and in pixels?
Search results cut titles by width, not by a character count. Type a headline to see its length, an approximate width at the size Google's desktop results use, and where a long one would be cut.
Shown in the preview. Nothing is fetched.
600 is the figure usually quoted for desktop.
- Characters
- 82
- Without spaces
- 68
- Words
- 15
- Approx. width
- — px
Measuring…
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A mock-up drawn at desktop width; on a phone, scroll it sideways. Real results also show your page's description.
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Why width matters more than characters
A search result has a fixed amount of room, and letters are not the same size: a capital W takes about three times the space of a lowercase i. Two titles of 60 characters can differ by a hundred pixels, which is why this checker measures width as well as counting.
How the estimate works
Your browser draws the title in Arial at 20 pixels, the font and size Google's desktop results have long used for titles, and measures it. Google publishes no fixed limit and changes its layout from time to time; 600 pixels is simply the desktop width most often quoted, so you can change it. Devices without Arial substitute a similar font, so treat the figure as approximate. When a title is too wide, the preview cuts it at a whole word and adds an ellipsis, the way results usually do.
Writing to fit
- Put the words that tell readers what the page is about first, so a cut costs you only the end.
- Keep a site-name suffix short, or let the end of the title be the part that can go.
- Capital letters take more room: title case runs a little wider than sentence case.
Google's own guidance is on its page about influencing title links in search results.
Questions
How many characters should a headline be?
There is no fixed number. Google shortens titles to fit the device, so the width above is a better guide than a character count. Beyond search, write as long as the headline needs to be clear, and no longer.
Will Google show my title exactly as I wrote it?
Not always. Google builds its title links from several sources, including the title element and the main heading on the page, and may choose other text when a title is very long, repetitive or doesn't describe the page.
Why does the width change on another device?
The width is measured with the fonts on the device you are using. Where Arial is missing, a similar font stands in and the number moves by a few pixels. The address and settings you type are not saved.