See your title and description as Google shows them.

A search result is two lines of text and a URL, and for most people it is the only part of your page they will ever read. This tool lets you write those lines and see how they will look before you publish them.

Why pixels and not characters

Google gives no character limit for titles or descriptions. Its documentation says that title links and snippets are truncated as needed, typically to fit the width of the device. Width depends on the letters: a title full of i and l fits more characters than one full of W and M. The tool measures the text in Arial, the font Google results have long used, and compares it with about 600 pixels for the title and about 920 pixels for the description on desktop.

Treat those numbers as estimates. Google changes the layout from time to time, and it often rewrites a snippet to match the query. The preview exists to catch the obvious cut-off, such as a key word lost behind an ellipsis, not to promise an exact rendering.

What makes a title and a description work

Google’s guidance for titles is short and consistent with experience:

• Say what the page delivers. A descriptive title beats a clever one, and “Home” or a bare brand name tells nobody anything.
• Make every title unique. Repeated or boilerplate titles across pages stop people telling results apart.
• Do not repeat words. If the same word appears several times, it looks spammy and helps nobody.
• Put the site name last and keep it short, separated by a hyphen or a colon. Longer brand descriptions belong on the homepage only.

For descriptions, Google says the page content is the main source of snippets and that it sometimes uses the meta description when that describes the page better. So write one that:

• summarizes this specific page, with the detail a reader needs to decide: the answer, the date, the price, the author;
• is unique per page, because one description copied across a site is ignored;
• reads like a person wrote it, with no keyword list.

How to use the preview

1. Paste your real title, description and URL, or start from the example.
2. Watch the two bars. Green means the text fits, orange means it is short enough to use more space, and red means it will be cut.
3. Check the mobile preview as well: on a phone the title can wrap onto two lines, so the first words carry the meaning.
4. Fix the cut-off, then copy the text into your page template.

The URL box accepts a full address and shows the breadcrumb style Google uses, so you can also see whether a path that is long or full of parameters looks untrustworthy in a result.

For how to write these two elements well and why they are rewritten so often, read title tags and meta descriptions: length, pixels, clicks, and for the heading that should match your title, heading structure: one H1 and an outline readers scan.