70 characters roughly where Google cuts off the title how many bytes for non-latin characters?

[ColumK]

Hi

So I was asked a good question by our localisation team regarding titles/descriptions and their cut off points on the google listing. I am unable to find any reference anywhere in terms of non-latin characters and the number of characters/bytes they would be before they are cut off in Google's Listing.

So for latin characters it is generally around 70 for the title and 170 for the description. Now the same does not apply for Japanese, Chinese and other non-latin character languages. These generally work in the number of bytes. Does anyone have a standard rule for ensuring the title/description are not too long/short when the listing displays in the search results?

Thanks

[Milian]

Hi ColumK,

The number of characters in the title is actually defined on pixels as opposed to character limited. I think it’s around 520 pixels wide. As a rule of thumb you can fit approx. 70 latin characters within the space, so that why many people recommend that.

So of course you're right, with non-latin characters you can fit a differing amount of characters in that pixel space. For instance, Thai characters are very small and you can fit many in there.

There is a great tool here, the Google SERP Snippet Optimization Tool. The tool simulates Google's search engine results pages and truncates off approx. where Google should (although it’s not always 100% spot on). You can also visualise the meta descriptions, URL, rich snippets etc. It’s an invaluable tool I use daily. There is also some great humorous SERP research on the site.

You can also set up an excel sheet to truncate the title length at the same amount of pixels as Google does. Set column width to 520px, set columns to wrap text, and font to Arial 12pt. Type in your Title, and bold the main keyword. If the line breaks, your Title tag will truncate. (credit to Vudu Marketing for this tip)

[ColumK]

Awesome, thanks Max.

[ColumK]

I have written some code to do this if anyone has the same problems:

Title:

Number of Pixels:

Description:

Number of Pixels: