Google’s Gary Illyes has recently talked about the limits of title tag length of a webpage in his Google Off the Record podcast. During the podcast he explained what a good title tag is about.

Usually the title tags are technically measured in terms of pixels and the recommended title tag length can be from fifty to about seventy characters long. These character limits changes based on how these titles are displayed on mobile and desktop devices. Usually, the length of the title tag is longer that what we see in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). The title tags will be cut of in the SERPs based on the device that is being used to conduct the search. If the length of the title tags are more than 70 characters, no one will be able to read the full title tag.

Usually, a title tag length of approximately 50 to 70 characters is recommended by SEO experts across the world, as that is the length of the title that is displayed by Google in SERPs. The 50 to 70 character length limit for a title is something the SEO community has found out as a standard based on what Google SERP is showing off.

As we mentioned above, the display limit of the title tag depends upon whether we are using a mobile or desktop device. It is also a fact that the recommendations for the length of a title tag are not at all meant for ranking purposes. Google has never said anywhere that the 40 to 70 character limits are what Google’s ranking algorithms the ideal length for indexing and better ranking purposes. So, it is pretty clear that limiting the title tag to 70 characters for ranking purposes does not make sense, as the length recommendation is purely based on what is displayed.

Different Title Tag Length Recommendations from the SEO Industry

1) Moz
Moz’s title tag length recommendation is limited to 50 – 60 characters and the have clearly stated that there is no actual limit for the title tag length and the number of characters that can be used.

2) Ahrefs
As per Ahrefs, the recommended title tag length is also between 50 to 60 characters. They also does not have revealed about the actual character limits anywhere.

3) SEMRush
Unlike others, SEMRush has a slightly different version about the title tag length and they recommends to limit the length for better effectiveness.

In a recent discussion, Google’s John Mueller had asked Garry Illyes about the length of the title tag and whether tags that are longer than the displayable length have any kind of value. To this, Garry replied that there was some value in having a longer title tag.

So, it is clear that Google has never recommended an optimal title tag size for web pages. Different types of recommendations have originated from outside of Google and has nothing to do with Google. But Google has officially recommended to keep the title tag descriptive and concise.

So next time, when you are running out of space while creating your title tag, you can without doubt go for a title tag length that is more than then 70 character limit.