How long should a title tag be?

Around 50–60 characters. Google measures pixels rather than characters and cuts at roughly 580px on desktop, so a title of wide capitals truncates sooner than one of narrow lowercase. Put the distinguishing words first, in case it does get cut.

How long should a meta description be?

150–160 characters. It is not a ranking factor, but it is the sentence that decides whether someone clicks, so write it as ad copy rather than as a summary. Google rewrites descriptions it considers unhelpful, which is a signal worth heeding.

Do I still need a keywords meta tag?

No. Google stopped using it in 2009 and announced as much publicly. It costs nothing but it does nothing; the only reason to include one is an internal tool that reads it.

What does the canonical tag do?

It names the preferred URL when the same content is reachable at several addresses — with and without a trailing slash, with tracking parameters, on http and https. Without one, search engines split the ranking signals across the duplicates.

Meta Tag Generator

Fill in a title, description and canonical URL and get the complete set of meta tags to paste into your HTML head — including the length warnings that tell you when Google will truncate them. Generated in your browser, ready to copy.

Runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded

Questions

How long should a title tag be?: Around 50–60 characters. Google measures pixels rather than characters and cuts at roughly 580px on desktop, so a title of wide capitals truncates sooner than one of narrow lowercase. Put the distinguishing words first, in case it does get cut.
How long should a meta description be?: 150–160 characters. It is not a ranking factor, but it is the sentence that decides whether someone clicks, so write it as ad copy rather than as a summary. Google rewrites descriptions it considers unhelpful, which is a signal worth heeding.
Do I still need a keywords meta tag?: No. Google stopped using it in 2009 and announced as much publicly. It costs nothing but it does nothing; the only reason to include one is an internal tool that reads it.
What does the canonical tag do?: It names the preferred URL when the same content is reachable at several addresses — with and without a trailing slash, with tracking parameters, on http and https. Without one, search engines split the ranking signals across the duplicates.

Meta Tag Generator

Questions

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