How to write a title tag that holds up in the SERP

A title tag works when it fits under 600 pixels, says what the click delivers and repeats no other page on the site. You write it in the <title> element in the head, you measure it in pixels rather than characters, and Google may rewrite it when another piece of text describes the page better.

Where the title tag lives

<title> sits in the head, is required in HTML and appears in three places: the browser tab, bookmarks and the search result. The Google Search Central documentation on title links, free but proprietary, explains that Google also reads the H1, og:title and the text of inbound links, then picks whichever describes the page best: a title tag is a proposal.

How long it really is

The limit is width, not character count. In the desktop SERP the title is cut at roughly 600 pixels, which is about 60 characters in English and fewer in Italian, because the letters are wider on average. Google publishes no exact threshold: 600 pixels is an industry measurement, consistent with what the results show.

Measure it before deployment

cat > check-title.mjs ]*>([\s\S]*?)/i);
if (!tag) { console.log("no title"); process.exit(1); }
const title = tag[1].replace(/&/g, "&").replace(/'/g, "'").replace(/\s+/g, " ").trim();
const narrow = /[iljtfIr.,:;|!]/;
const wide = /[MWmw@%]/;
const px = [...title].reduce((sum, c) => sum + (wide.test(c) ? 15 : narrow.test(c) ? 5 : 9), 0);
console.log(title.length + " chars · ~" + px + " px");
console.log(title);
EOF
curl -s https://ui.eneawork.it/ > page.html
node check-title.mjs page.html

The script reads the title from the page, collapses whitespace and estimates width with a crude table: 15 pixels for wide characters, 5 for narrow ones, 9 for the rest. It is not a measurement of the real font. It is a filter that catches titles beyond 600 pixels before Google does.

Three rules that hold

• Specific before generic: a title that names the content beats a title that names the category.
• One title per page: two pages sharing a title compete, and Google picks one of them.
• The brand name at the end, and only when it adds information: at the front it eats the first 600 pixels.

When Google rewrites

Google replaces a title when it is empty, repeats the same word, contains only the site name, or when text on the page describes the query better. A rewrite is not a bug to patch with a plugin: it signals that the title does not match the content. A title that describes the page and stays under 600 pixels rarely gets rewritten.

The EneUI catalogue

Catalogue pages face the same problem across 111,985 records: the title is generated, not written. circular-reveal-heading, MIT licence, animates the heading instead of writing it, a reminder that the effect does not replace the text; hero-01 from Shadcnspace shows how the heading changes per section. Both sit in the index that starts at 1,556 blocks. Checked on 1 November 2026.

The limitation

No title guarantees a click. The rate depends on the query, the position, the neighbouring results and whether an AI Overview appears, and Google can swap the text without notice. The only honest comparison sits in Search Console, under Performance, where the title shown and the title clicked are two different columns.

Where to continue

The sequence for getting into the index is in getting a site indexed by Google; the field that completes the title is in meta descriptions that work. If the site base is still undecided, the comparison is in WordPress, Wix or React components.