# Meta tag checker: title tag and meta description length, with Google preview > Preview how your page looks in Google results. Check your title tag and meta description length in characters and pixels, and fix what gets cut off. Canonical: https://indielaunch.dev/tools/meta-tag-checker Last updated: 2026-11-03 Write or load your page's title tag and meta description, and see them laid out the way a Google result shows them. The checker measures both in characters and in pixels, because Google cuts long titles and descriptions by their width on screen, not by a character count. The tool itself is interactive: open [Meta title & description checker](https://indielaunch.dev/tools/meta-tag-checker) in a browser to use it. ## How to use it 1. Type your title and description, or paste your page's address and press Load to read the ones it has now. 2. Watch the preview and the two meters as you edit. Green means it fits, amber means it's getting long or short, red means part of it will be cut off. 3. Copy the finished tags into your page's . ## What you get - Title width in pixels, against the roughly 600px Google shows on desktop. - Description length, against the roughly 920px (about 155 to 160 characters) Google usually shows. - Empty, too short and duplicated text, and a ready-to-paste and <meta name="description">. ## FAQ ### How long should a title tag be? Aim for about 50 to 60 characters. Google cuts titles that are wider than about 600 pixels on desktop and adds an ellipsis, so a title of wide letters (capitals, W, M) is cut sooner than one of narrow letters. Put the words people search for near the start, so they survive a cut. ### How long should a meta description be? About 120 to 160 characters. Google usually shows up to around 920 pixels on desktop and less on phones. A description shorter than about 70 characters often gets replaced by text Google picks from the page. ### Why does Google show a different title or description from mine? Google rewrites them when it thinks other text answers the search better: when yours is very long, stuffed with keywords, the same on many pages, or doesn't match what the page is about. A clear, specific title that matches the page's main heading is rewritten least. ### Does the meta description affect ranking? Google has said it doesn't use the meta description to rank pages. It still matters, because it's often the text under your link, and a description that says what the page does gets more clicks. ## Related - [Open Graph checker](https://indielaunch.dev/tools/open-graph-checker) - [Robots.txt & sitemap checker](https://indielaunch.dev/tools/robots-txt-checker) - [UTM link builder](https://indielaunch.dev/tools/utm-builder) - [Submit your startup](https://indielaunch.dev/submit-your-startup)