SERP Preview — title & meta description

What is a SERP preview?

A SERP preview shows how your page will look in Google's search results — the title tag, the meta description and the URL — before you publish. The snippet is the first thing a searcher sees, and it decides whether they click your result or a competitor's. Testing it beforehand means you never waste a good ranking on a truncated or unconvincing snippet.

How long should a title tag be?

Google doesn't truncate titles by character count but by pixel width: roughly 580 pixels on desktop. Since letters vary in width (an "i" is much narrower than a "W"), two titles with the same character count can render very differently. As a rule of thumb 50–60 characters usually fits, but the only reliable check is measuring pixels — which is exactly what this tool does, using the same typography Google renders with.

How long should a meta description be?

The meta description is allowed about 920 pixels (roughly two lines) on desktop and about three shorter lines on mobile — typically 120–155 characters before truncation. It isn't a direct ranking factor, but it strongly affects click-through rate. Write it as ad copy: lead with the benefit, include the search term, and end with a reason to click.

Tips for snippets that get clicked

• Put the primary keyword early in the title — it gets bolded when it matches the query.
• Front-load the message: the first words survive truncation, the last ones don't.
• One unique title and description per page — duplicates make Google rewrite them.
• Check both desktop and mobile: the limits differ, and most searches are mobile.

This tool is free, requires no account and stores nothing. It's built on the same snippet measurement used by the SEOZ crawler, which checks every page on your site automatically. Google's own guidelines are documented in the title links documentation and the snippets documentation on Google Search Central.