Why Meta Titles and Descriptions Still Matter for SEO
A short guide to meta title and description length for search results. Learn the 30–60 and 120–160 character rules and how BearAudit checks them on every page.
Search engines use your meta title and meta description in results. Getting the length right helps your pages look good and can improve click-through rates.
What BearAudit checks
- Title — Present, 30–60 characters. Too short and you underuse the space; too long and it gets truncated in SERPs.
- Description — Present, 120–160 characters. Same idea: use the space without getting cut off.
These show up as errors if they’re missing, and warnings if the length is off. Fix those first, then tweak copy for clicks.
Quick wins
- Make every page have a unique title and description.
- Put the main keyword near the start of the title.
- Write descriptions that describe the page and encourage a click—don’t stuff keywords.
Run a BearAudit crawl to see which pages fail these checks, then fix them in your CMS or templates.
For a short definition, see What are meta title and meta description? in our glossary.