How bad is it going over 70 character for title tag length?

[EcommerceSite]

I know less than 70 is recommended. I am about to run a script to create some title tags and a few will be between 71-74. Is going just the few characters over ok until I can get in there and manually do them?

[Mark_Ginsberg]

Going over 70 characters means your title tags will be truncated by Google. And nowadays, it's not dictated by characters, but the amount of pixels those characters take up - staying under 65 will usually mean you're in the clear.

If you are formulaically creating title tags, and a few of those go over 70, I don't think it's the end of the world. It's not bad - you aren't going to be punished - Google will just truncate the tag and add an ellipsis - worst case scenario, they'll create their own title tag.

That being said, I'd make sure for your target pages (pages you really care about and are aiming for as landing pages in the SERPs), you manually review/write them and make sure they are optimized in terms of keyword inclusion, Call to action, branding, length, etc.

[LoveFitness]

Hi Niners72,

I agree with Mark. But I would also try to ensure that you are providing a relevant yet unique title tag for each of  your pages where possible (you can focus on the ones that are top level then work through as when you have the time-if you have a large site) as these can help to improve Click Through Rate also as well as the description (which needs to be within the 156 limit).