{"id":6219,"date":"2022-10-05T11:18:05","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T11:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/05\/what-should-the-title-tag-length-be-in-2023\/"},"modified":"2022-10-05T11:18:05","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T11:18:05","slug":"what-should-the-title-tag-length-be-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/05\/what-should-the-title-tag-length-be-in-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"What should the title tag length be in 2023?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The title tag is one of the most important SEO elements. It can have a great impact on your rankings. In my experience, optimizing title tags can give rankings a strong boost.<\/p>\n<p>There are many different ways to approach optimizing a title tag.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One is making sure they fit within the 55-60 character limit. Though other SEOs suggest it\u2019s okay to have title tags that are up to 70 characters long.<\/p>\n<p>There are also concerns that getting the title truncated in search results or having it rewritten by Google can negatively affect organic performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In this post, we\u2019ll explore the basis for such concerns, Google\u2019s official statement about title length, and my findings after manually looking at 645 title tags on Page 1 of Google\u2019s SERPs.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_81 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/05\/what-should-the-title-tag-length-be-in-2023\/#Example_of_title_tag_cut_off_in_SERPs\" >Example of title tag cut off in SERPs<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/05\/what-should-the-title-tag-length-be-in-2023\/#The_title_tag_update_and_the_aftermath\" >The title tag update and the aftermath<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/05\/what-should-the-title-tag-length-be-in-2023\/#The_confusion\" >The confusion<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/05\/what-should-the-title-tag-length-be-in-2023\/#What_is_Googles_official_statement_about_title_length\" >What is Google\u2019s official statement about title length?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/05\/what-should-the-title-tag-length-be-in-2023\/#Would_having_longer_titles_impact_rankings\" >Would having longer titles impact rankings?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/05\/what-should-the-title-tag-length-be-in-2023\/#My_analysis\" >My analysis<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/05\/what-should-the-title-tag-length-be-in-2023\/#Title_tag_length_in_2023\" >Title tag length in 2023<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Example_of_title_tag_cut_off_in_SERPs\"><\/span>Example of title tag cut off in SERPs<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Technically speaking, the number of characters for a title tag that Google can display in SERPs is measured in pixels. When your title tag is too long, Google can cut it off like this.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"623\" height=\"139\" src=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2022\/10\/serp-result-example.png\" alt=\"SERP listing with a truncated title.\" class=\"wp-image-388472\" title=\"| Craig Hordlow\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_title_tag_update_and_the_aftermath\"><\/span>The title tag update and the aftermath<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In August 2021, Google <a href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/google-confirms-it-changed-how-it-creates-titles-for-search-result-listings-351506\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released an update aimed at title tags<\/a>. This update enables Google to show a different title to users in SERPs than the one available in the HTML title tag.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>HTML title tags may get rewritten in SERPs when they are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Too long.<\/li>\n<li>Stuffed with keywords.<\/li>\n<li>Missing or containing repetitive \u201cboilerplate\u201d language (i.e., home pages might be called \u201cHome\u201d).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once the update was released, it caused an uproar in the SEO community as many SEOs have reported incidents where the title rewrite went \u201chorribly wrong.\u201d This even led Google\u2019s John Mueller to tweet about it:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I&#8217;d love to see examples where things go horribly wrong with recent changes, but most of the ones I&#8217;ve seen so far look pretty reasonable. (Also, I love seeing analyses like yours about these changes!)<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/14.0.0\/72x72\/1f33d.png\" alt=\"\ud83c\udf3d\" class=\"wp-smiley\" title=\"| Craig Hordlow\">\u3008link href=\/\/johnmu.com rel=canonical \u3009<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/14.0.0\/72x72\/1f33d.png\" alt=\"\ud83c\udf3d\" class=\"wp-smiley\" title=\"| Craig Hordlow\"> (@JohnMu) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnMu\/status\/1428009891885682694?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 18, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Rob Woods reported an incident where the title tag was replaced with the URL slug:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">shared this elsewhere. The query was &#8220;colored contacts&#8221; which appears in the title and H1. Instead of one of those, they are using the URL slug as the serp title. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eg9IVgCEyO\">pic.twitter.com\/eg9IVgCEyO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rob Woods <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/14.0.0\/72x72\/1f4bb.png\" alt=\"\ud83d\udcbb\" class=\"wp-smiley\" title=\"| Craig Hordlow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/14.0.0\/72x72\/1f3a3.png\" alt=\"\ud83c\udfa3\" class=\"wp-smiley\" title=\"| Craig Hordlow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/14.0.0\/72x72\/1f3d5.png\" alt=\"\ud83c\udfd5\" class=\"wp-smiley\" title=\"| Craig Hordlow\"> (@robdwoods) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/robdwoods\/status\/1428041177064906757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 18, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"643\" height=\"120\" src=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2022\/10\/slug-used-as-SERP-listing-title.png\" alt=\"slug used as SERP listing title\" class=\"wp-image-388473\" title=\"| Craig Hordlow\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Chatter in the SEO community showed many examples of Google replacing <code>&lt;title&gt;<\/code> tags in the search results with alternative page elements like H1 tags, image alt texts, image file names, and sometimes the selected text was not even within the source code of the page. The most noticeable insight from the title tag update is that \u201cGoogle wants shorter titles displayed in SERPs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This has caused some panic in the SEO community. Many SEOs started to double down on the importance of avoiding title rewrites by making sure their titles are short and within the character limit.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_confusion\"><\/span>The confusion<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>It is clear to everyone that Google wants shorter titles in SERPs. <\/p>\n<p>But does that mean they will use the titles displayed in SERPs (which may be potentially cut off or rewritten) for rankings instead of the HTML title?<\/p>\n<p>This has led many SEOs to assume that longer titles will either get cut off or rewritten, and Google will not consider them for rankings but will consider the new title displayed in SERPs for rankings instead.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_is_Googles_official_statement_about_title_length\"><\/span>What is Google\u2019s official statement about title length?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/search-off-the-record.libsyn.com\/transcription-for-search-central-live-qa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Search Off the Record episode<\/a>, Google\u2019s John Mueller asked Gary Illyes about title tag length:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a question that is, maybe, just a yes or no thing, Gary. Is there a value in having &lt;i&gt;title&lt;\/i&gt; tags that are longer than the displayable space and the sections of it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To which Illyes gave a very clear and precise answer, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added, \u201cThe &lt;i&gt;title&lt;\/i&gt; length, that\u2019s an externally made-up metrics\u2026 Technically, there\u2019s a limit, like how long can it be anything in the page, but it\u2019s not a small number. It\u2019s not 160 characters or whatever\u2013 100, 200, 20, or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And recommended to \u201cTry to keep it precise to the page, but I would not think too much about how long it is and whether it\u2019s long enough or way too long. If it fills up your screen, then probably it\u2019s too long, but if it just one sentence that fits on one line or two lines, you\u2019re not going to get a manual action for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If we refer to <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/appearance\/title-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google\u2019s documentation on SERPs titles<\/a> (a.k.a., title links), there\u2019s no recommended length for the title tag.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Would_having_longer_titles_impact_rankings\"><\/span>Would having longer titles impact rankings?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If longer title tags can get cut off or rewritten in SERPs, wouldn\u2019t that impact rankings? Luckily, Lily Ray popped this question on Twitter and got this reply from Glenn Gabe.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Google has always explained that what you provide in the title tag is what&#8217;s used (no matter what their systems dynamically change the title to in the SERPs). I&#8217;ve been checking and haven&#8217;t seen a ton of changes yet. Def. some (esp. brand tags at the end), but nothing crazy.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/glenngabe\/status\/1427985467375554566?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 18, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>This is what Mueller said in Google\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lTIR8hM5pbw&amp;t=3122s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SEO Office Hours<\/a> from Dec. 11, 2020.<\/p>\n<p>So whether your titles get cut off or rewritten in SERPs, Google still uses the HTML title tag for ranking considerations and not the titles shown in SERPs.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"My_analysis\"><\/span>My analysis<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>I want to put this argument to rest. Hopefully, as an industry, we stop recommending to clients to \u201cshorten\u201d their title tags for the sake of it \u2013 just because there\u2019s been a title length metric circulating in almost all online resources on the topic with no facts or evidence to support it.<\/p>\n<p>I put together a random set of keywords and analyzed the titles on Page 1 of the SERPs for each of those keywords.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Here are my findings after manually looking at 645 title tags:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Google tends to display shorter titles. Out of the 645 titles displayed in SERPs that I analyzed, only 79 (12%) were above 60 characters, with 68 characters as the maximum length.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Out of the 645 URLs, 286 URLs (22%) had HTML title tags longer than 60 characters, with 139 characters as the maximum length. This means you can go above the 60-character title length limit, get cut off or rewritten, <strong>and still rank on the first page.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>If we filter out pages that didn\u2019t have any title tags at all, there were instances where Google actually increased the title tag length. So even shorter titles can get rewritten. This is very common in LinkedIn profile page titles. Example:\n<ul>\n<li>For this URL [<code>https:\/\/ca.linkedin.com\/in\/michael-kuch-387740207<\/code>] the HTML title tag was \u201cMichael Kuch | LinkedIn\u201d but Google decided to display a longer more descriptive title as follows:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"654\" height=\"137\" src=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2022\/10\/LinkedIn-SERP-listing.png\" alt=\"Longer LinkedIn profile page title in SERPs\" class=\"wp-image-388475\" title=\"| Craig Hordlow\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>The length of the titles displayed in SERPs increased in 103 URLs of the 645 sample URLs. This is 16% of the entire sample.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The most common length of titles displayed in SERPs in this sample is between 58-60 characters (see histogram below).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"647\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2022\/10\/Length-of-titles-displayed-in-SERPs.png\" alt=\"Length of titles displayed in SERPs\" class=\"wp-image-388476\" title=\"| Craig Hordlow\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>To view the complete sample, check this <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1g7SSRFFc6Ve8EstYLwT0xu66WNTb8SukG3YBV0U1IjE\/edit?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Sheet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Title_tag_length_in_2023\"><\/span>Title tag length in 2023<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In summary, you do not need to stick to a 55-60 character limit for your title tags. Your titles can be \u2013 and should be \u2013 as long as needed within reason. <\/p>\n<p>Title tags are among the few assets which highly impact rankings that we still have some control over. Let\u2019s make the best out of them.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re worried about getting cut off or having your title rewritten, know that these are secondary concerns. Ranking well gets the highest priority.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Optimize your titles to rank first even if you go above the 60-70 character limit. Then, experiment to adjust how your titles look in SERPs. <\/p>\n<p>But if you don\u2019t rank, it doesn\u2019t matter how long your titles are anyway.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/title-tag-length-388468\" target=\"_blank\">What should the title tag length be in 2023?<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Search Engine Land<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The title tag is one of the most important SEO elements. It can have a great impact on your rankings. In my experience, optimizing title tags can give rankings a strong boost. There are many different ways to approach optimizing a title tag.\u00a0 One is making sure they fit within the 55-60 character limit. Though other SEOs suggest it\u2019s okay to have title tags that are up to 70 characters long. There are also concerns that getting the title truncated in search results or having it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"h5ap_radio_sources":[],"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-seo-blogs"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":false,"author_link":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/author\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craighordlow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}