Google Extends Lengths of Titles and Meta Descriptions in SERPs

Did you know that Google has extended lengths of titles and meta descriptions that appear in the search engine results pages (SERPs)?

Don’t worry if you didn’t. Apparently, not many people noticed it.

As a matter of fact, it is believed that the new appearance came into effect on May 4, but hardly anyone noticed it.

As per this recent update — which we still believe is just in a testing phase — Google has extended lengths of meta titles and meta descriptions in the SERPs. Traditionally, the titles that appear in the search engine result pages usually have 50-55 characters. These titles tags have been now increased to show approximately 70-71 characters. If you are creative and clever enough, you can easily squeeze another word or two in the titles of your posts.

It will help you explain the topic better, add a good power word, and also target a few more important keywords.

Similarly, lengths of meta descriptions have been also increased from 160 characters to 278 characters. This gives a tremendous opportunity for webmasters and bloggers to fully explain what a post is about. Moreover, the increased length of meta description can also accommodate many more important and relevant keywords for better search engine optimisation.

Does It Affect SEO?

The important question is whether this change affects SEO in any way?

We still believe that Google is most probably just A/B testing at the moment. Google officials have claimed many times that they like to A/B test stuff. And we think that it is just another of their tests and can be easily reversed.

So, at the moment, no, it doesn’t really affect SEO. More importantly, it shouldn’t affect your SEO strategy at the moment. Until this change is confirmed, finalised, and fully implemented, you shouldn’t base your SEO strategy on this.

However, if it does get implemented, then you should definitely leverage the extra space to not only accommodate more keywords, but also to explain your webpage’s content better.

We believe that, if used properly, the lengthier meta description can play an important role in increasing CTRs you get from search engines. And it is an ever-growing search engine ranking factor.

So, what are your thoughts about this change by Google? If it is just an A/B test, do you think that Google should implement this change and increase the lengths of title tags and meta descriptions?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.