optimizing urls & titles of google sites for click thru and SERPS ranking

How many characters or pixels are visible on google SERPs

There are 3 elements to a google search results each has a different limit on whats is visible before truncation hides the rest. These limits are in pixels not characters, as an I is narrower than an M. These limits also vary across devise and other variables.

  • URL / permalink limit on visible pixels - Desktop 470 pixels however this is taken from the domain/ subdomain name plus the page url, folders in between are automatically hidden
  • Headline limit on visible pixels - Desktop 470 pixels approx
  • Descriptions limit on visible pixels approx. 1500 pixels, however the new version of Google Sites does not let you set a meta description tag and Google will pull copy from the page that it deems most relevant to the search query, this makes the visible title & url all the more important.


Tools that you can use to measure the pixel width of a page title or url

As Google does not counts characters but pixels of a page title or url you need to be able to test and measure different options so you can be sure that your page will show optimally as a Google search results. This tool is perfect for the job http://www.webshoptimizer.com/page-title-pixel-meter/

Tools to preview what a live page's search result will look like

Try this Google SERP snippet optimization tool as a guide when creating your Title and Meta descriptions

https://totheweb.com/learning_center/tool-test-google-title-meta-description-lengths/

Test it using the url for this page

https://sites.google.com/catalystmdc.com/use-gsites-to-rank-for-kw/optimizing-urls-of-google-sites-for-click-thru-and-serps-ranking