why pixels, not characters

Length limits are physics, not ranking rules.

Every "keep your title under 60 characters" rule you have read is a rough translation of one physical fact: Google's desktop layout gives a title about 600 pixels of width in 20 pixel Arial, and whatever does not fit gets an ellipsis. Characters are a bad proxy for pixels because letters have different widths. "MAXIMUM WIDTH WINDOW WASHING" and "little italian trattoria in lille" are nearly the same character count and nowhere near the same width. This tool measures your actual words in the actual font, so the number you see is the number that matters.

Truncation is not a penaltyA cut title does not rank worse because it was cut. Google's documentation sets no length limit for titles or descriptions. The cost of truncation is human: the searcher cannot read your pitch past the ellipsis, so put the part that wins the click at the front.
Google rewrites most titles anywayIndependent measurement across 2,370 sites found Google rewrote 61.6% of title tags, most often trimming boilerplate or swapping in the page's own H1. Write an honest, specific title and make your H1 agree with it, because that H1 is the most likely replacement.
Descriptions are a pitch, not a ranking factorGoogle has been clear that the description meta tag does not affect ranking. It affects whether a human picks you. Google also swaps it for on-page text whenever that text matches the search better, which is why the page itself has to make the same case the description does.
AI answers quote your title verbatimWhen ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI features cite a page, the visible link is usually the domain and the title, unedited. A title that starts with your brand name wastes that line. A title that starts with what the page answers earns the click from inside the answer.

snippet questions, answered straight

The honest version.

How long should a title tag be?

There is no correct character count, because Google does not enforce one. Google's guidance is to write descriptive, concise titles and to avoid stuffing; the widely quoted "50 to 60 characters" is just an approximation of the roughly 600 pixels the desktop layout displays before cutting. Measure in pixels, front-load the words that matter, and treat anything past the cut as a bonus for wide screens, not a requirement.

Does Google rewrite title tags?

Yes, and more often than not. A 2021 study of 80,959 titles across 2,370 sites by Zyppy measured Google rewriting 61.6% of them, usually by trimming boilerplate, dropping brand suffixes, or substituting the page's H1. You cannot prevent a rewrite, but you can control what Google reaches for: keep the title and the H1 telling the same story, and the version searchers see stays yours in substance either way.

Do meta descriptions affect rankings?

No. Google has stated for years that the description meta tag is not a ranking signal, and its snippet documentation says snippets are primarily generated from the page content itself. The description earns its keep at the moment of choice: a specific, honest pitch gets the click over a vague one. Write it for the person comparing ten results, and accept that Google will substitute on-page text whenever it matches the search better.

one signal of the whole picture

The snippet is the storefront. We audit the building.

A clean title and description get you the click. Whether Google and the AI engines can read, trust, and cite the page behind it is a different question, and it is the one the full AuditLamp audit answers: 116 checks across search, answer boxes, and AI assistants, each one grounded in official documentation and explained in plain language. Paste your URL, get the diagnosis on screen.

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