What are Meta Title and Meta Description?
Meta title and meta description are the headline and snippet that appear in search results. Learn why they matter for SEO and how to optimise them.
The meta title (title tag) and meta description are HTML elements that define the main headline and short summary of a page. Search engines often use them in the search results snippet, so they directly influence click-through rate and how users understand your page before visiting.
Meta title
- Set with
<title>Your Page Title</title>in the<head>. - Should be unique, descriptive, and typically under roughly 60 characters so it doesn’t get cut off in results.
- Acts as the default when the page is bookmarked or shared (unless overridden by Open Graph).
Meta description
- Set with
<meta name="description" content="A short summary of the page.">. - Often shown as the snippet under the title in SERPs; length guidelines are around 150–160 characters.
- Not a direct ranking factor, but a strong lever for CTR and relevance.
Common issues
- Missing — No title or description, so search engines generate one (often poor).
- Duplicate — Same title or description across many pages, hurting uniqueness and CTR.
- Too long or too short — Truncation in SERPs or weak use of the space.
How BearAudit checks them
BearAudit checks each crawled page for the presence and length of the meta title and meta description. We flag missing, duplicate, or length issues so you can fix them and improve how your pages appear in search.