See how your page looks in Google search results
See how your page appears in Google on a phone and on a desktop, and which words get cut.
A search result is the first thing most people see of your business, and it is shorter than it looks. Google gives the title one line and the description about two, then stops. Where it stops depends on the width of the words rather than the number of them, so two titles of the same length can be cut in different places. Enter the address of a page and this reads what it already has, or type a title and description to try wording out. The result is drawn at the size Google uses on a desktop and on a phone, with the cut shown where it falls.
On a computer
On a phone
Length is measured in pixels, not characters
Google cuts a title when the line runs out of room, and a line holds a number of pixels rather than a number of letters. A title of sixty narrow letters can fit where fifty wide ones do not, which is why a character count is only ever a rough guide. This measures the width of the words you actually typed, in the font search results are set in. The limits used here are the widely accepted figures rather than published ones, because Google does not publish them and changes them from time to time.
A phone shows less than a desktop
The screen is narrower, so the title wraps sooner and the description is cut earlier. Most people will see your page on a phone, so that is the version worth writing for. Both are shown here side by side, each measured on its own, because a title that fits on a desktop can lose its last few words on a phone.
Google shows its own wording more often than yours
A description is a suggestion rather than an instruction, and studies of first page results put the rewrite rate near seventy percent. Your own words are used roughly a third of the time. The reason is that you write one description while the page has to answer hundreds of different searches, so when your wording does not fit the search somebody typed, Google takes a sentence from the page instead. A description that is missing, generic, or a repeat of the title is replaced almost every time. One that answers a real question is replaced least often. Titles survive more often than descriptions, which is where the effort is better spent.
The parts you do not control
The favicon comes from your site, the address path comes from the address, and the date appears when Google decides the page has one worth showing. None of them can be set in a tag. They are drawn here because they take up room and change how the result reads, so leaving them out would make the preview look roomier than the real thing.
Measured the way a search result is measured, in pixels rather than characters.
- Desktop result
- Mobile result
- Different cut on each
- Favicon and site name
- Address path
- Date, where one is shown
- Pixel width against the limit
- The cut where it falls
- Your search words in bold
- Reads the title and description
- Reads the canonical address
- Nothing is stored