“Is Title Tag Length A Ranking Factor?” Google Responds

According to some, ~60 characters is the ideal title tag length. Is that length an SEO ranking factor?
SIA Team
November 22, 2021

If you’ve ever used a WordPress SEO plugin, you’ve probably seen that the recommended title tag length is around 60 characters.

And that makes sense, because on a search engine results page (depending on the screen size of your device), the maximum number of viewable characters you see on the blue text for each listing is around that number. 

But, is that a ranking factor?

What if, like me, you write news items, and can’t easily fit your title into the recommended 60 character limit?

If this is something that’s been worrying you, you can now be assured that if you exceed that title length, it won’t adversely affect your ranking. 

Google Asked About Title Tag Length

I know this because on the most recent English Google SEO Office-Hours (from November 19, 2021), someone asked Google’s John Mueller about this. 

Basically, the person asked:

“Is that a really good factor of ranking, that the title tag should be something with the limitation [of 65 characters]?”

John’s response was:

“No, we don’t have any recommendation for the length of a title.”

When asked further about his, John confirmed his original response:

“The length doesn’t matter. If we show something shorter or if we show something slightly different, that’s just kind of how we display it in the search results. It doesn’t mean the ranking changes.”

I’d recommend that you try to at least keep the first 60 characters of your title tag enticing, so that users click, but if your title tag length is ultimately longer than that, it shouldn’t be a ranking issue.

Source: Google Search Central YouTube channel