SEO title check: how to review whether your page title is well optimized

A page's title (the <title> element) is the first thing people see in Google, and Google uses it to create the result's title around 87% of the time, according to its Search Central blog. But a Zyppy study of 80,959 titles found that Google rewrote 61.6% of them. An SEO title check helps you write titles that Google keeps and that invite the click.

1 to 5 characters96.6%

20 characters or fewer50%

51 to 60 characters42%

Over 60 characters76%

Over 70 characters99.9%

Source: Zyppy, study of 80,959 titles from 2,370 sites (2022). For "51 to 60" the study gives a 39% to 42% range (the maximum is shown); for "20 or fewer" and "over 60", "more than" that value

View the data as a table

1 to 5 characters	96.6%
20 characters or fewer	50%
51 to 60 characters	42%
Over 60 characters	76%
Over 70 characters	99.9%

What an SEO title check is

An SEO title check is a review of a page's title against concrete criteria: whether it exists, how long it is, whether it includes the keyword, whether it is unique and whether it describes what users will find. You can do it by hand, looking at the source code, or in seconds with our free SEO title check, which shows the exact title of any page and its length in characters.

✓▣Free toolFree SEO Checker: on-page SEO analyzerPaste a URL and check its title, meta description, headings, canonical, languages, images and links.Use tool →

The 6 points of an SEO title check

1. It exists and is not empty

It sounds obvious, but the title is missing on 1.5% of mobile pages, according to the 2025 Web Almanac. Google also lists "half-empty" titles, where part of the text is missing, as a problem.

2. It has a reasonable length

Google does not set a limit, but it truncates the title "as needed, typically to fit the device width", its documentation on titles explains. In the Zyppy study, the 51 to 60 character range was the one Google rewrote least (between 39% and 42%). Above 70 characters, it rewrote them almost always. To see how your title gets cut, use our SERP simulator, which measures it in pixels.

3. It includes the keyword, once

Put the word people search for at the beginning. Google warns against "keyword stuffing": repeating the same word several times makes the result look spammy.

4. It is unique across the site

Each page should have its own title. Google lists repeated text across groups of pages as a problem, such as the same title for every product in a catalog.

5. The brand does not take up all the space

The brand at the end, separated by a dash or a pipe, helps people recognize you. But if the title is just the brand, you waste space, except on the home page. A useful finding from the Zyppy study: Google removed or replaced the pipe ( | ) in 41% of cases, and the dash in only 19.7%.

6. It matches the H1

Google uses the H1 and other prominent text on the page to create the result's title. If the title and the H1 say the same thing, Google is more likely to keep yours. Zyppy measured one example: when the title and the H1 include the same number, Google kept a number 97.3% of the time.

An SEO title check example

Title	Length	Diagnosis
Home	4	Vague and too short: Google will probably replace it
Sneakers	8	Short and generic: it does not say what you offer or who you are
Women's running sneakers, deals, discounts, cheap sneakers Chile | Store	72	Long and repetitive: Google will truncate or rewrite it
Women's running sneakers with delivery across Chile - Store	59	Clear, with the keyword first and the brand last