Significant Change to SERPs: Google Extends Length of Titles and Descriptions

Recently updated: January 5th, 2019

Have you ever noticed any visible changes to Search Engine Result Pages? Well, Google, the most popular search engine, has made several significant changes to its search results. These changes have been in effect from as early as May 2018 but it has actually gone unnoticed. It is not until recently that internet enthusiasts and common web users have started noticing and talking about the changes. For a sneak preview of these changes, just go the Google right away and type anything that interests you. What do you notice about the search results in terms of length and characters?

What are the changes from Google?

If you are keen enough, you will notice there is a considerable increase in the number of title tag characters from 50-60 characters to about 71 characters. Moreover, descriptions have lengthened from two lines to three lines. This is an increase of about 150 characters per line or total 300 characters. It would be difficult for common users to notice any changes in the characters for they are more interested in the search results rather than the length of characters. Nonetheless, for SEO professionals and internet gurus, these changes are of valuable importance. It is important to note that there is every indication from Google that these changes are only for testing purposes. It is not yet permanent.

What is the importance of extending title and description lengths?

Google often look for ways to improve on web performance and consequently, their services and this is one way of testing user reaction to the changes in search result pages. How the common users appreciate these changes will have a bearing on whether Google will stick to the changes or roll back to the previous width. To the common users, search results having longer title lengths and descriptions will help them determine the specific search they are looking for. Web searchers can tell what a page is all about using the information from the extended search result pages.

For “SEO experts“, extended title lengths and descriptions allow for additional information on your tags. Previously, the constraints in title length and description often gave SEO experts a hard time trying to fit the right tags for higher page rankings. With the new changes, you can insert additional words that could ultimately help your page or website rank highly in the Google search results. The only uncertainty is that Google has not come out to confirm if these changes will be permanent. If you can recall, Google had a redesign in its search engine results pages as early as 2018, but this had to do with font size rather than the length of title and description characters.

As aforementioned, the length of the title has a bearing on your page rankings in Google. When Google displays your page in its SERPs, it often shows content from your title or description Meta tags. Although Google has allowed for lengthy titles, the title should be neither too long nor too short. Poor titles tags will have a negative impact on your page rankings. For optimum results, try out some of the available title preview tools.

The changes in the length of titles and descriptions have had a positive impact on page views and rankings. By using the ideal title and description tags, publishers should expect to notice a momentous boost in terms of page views and search result rankings. As for common web users, expect to find specific results that meet the criteria for your search. Hoping that Google will not roll back these changes, the future looks bright, as searching the internet will now be faster and provide specific results.