Title tags directly influence both ranking and click-through and deserve real attention on every page. Meta descriptions do not affect ranking but do affect whether someone chooses your listing over the four around it, which makes both worth writing deliberately rather than leaving to a template.

Titles

The title element does two jobs: it signals what the page is about, and it is the headline someone reads before deciding whether to click. Those pull in slightly different directions, which is the whole craft of writing them.

Length

Around 50 to 60 characters is the usual guidance, though the actual constraint is pixel width rather than character count, so a title full of wide capitals truncates sooner than one of narrow lowercase letters.

Truncation is not a disaster. Put the important words first and a cut tail costs little.

Front-load the meaningful words

"Emergency Plumber Surrey | Company Name" works better than "Company Name | Your Trusted Local Experts in Plumbing Services". The scanner reads left to right and stops early.

Include the location for local businesses

The single most valuable addition for a service business, and frequently missing. Someone scanning results is filtering for relevance to where they are.

One title per page, genuinely different

Templated titles that differ only by a swapped word produce a results page where none of your entries look distinct. Where you have location or service pages, make the titles reflect what is actually different about each.

Do not stuff

"Plumber Surrey Plumbing Surrey Emergency Plumber Surrey BC" reads as spam to a human and produces nothing. It is also the sort of title most likely to be rewritten.

Google rewriting your titles

Since 2021 Google has generated its own titles for results where it judges the supplied one unhelpful, frequently drawing on your headings or on-page text instead. This is common enough that seeing your title changed is unremarkable rather than a sign something is broken.

The practical response is not to fight it but to reduce the reasons for it:

Worth checking Search Console occasionally to see what is actually being displayed, since a rewritten title is sometimes the first hint that a page is not describing itself clearly.

Meta descriptions

Two things are true at once and people tend to hold only one.

They are not a ranking factor. Google has been explicit about this for many years. Nothing you write in a description moves a position.

They still matter. Where the description is used, it is the sales copy under your headline, and click-through rate is a genuine outcome even when it is not a ranking input.

Google rewrites descriptions frequently, often pulling a passage from the page that better matches the query. That is not a failure; a snippet matching the specific search is frequently more useful than anything generic you could have written.

How to write descriptions worth writing

Where to spend the effort

Titles deserve real attention: they influence ranking, they are the headline, and they are within your control most of the time.

Descriptions deserve deliberate writing on the pages that matter, since a description that names a specific service area, price range, or response time distinguishes your listing from several vague competitors. Across a large site, prioritise the pages that earn enquiries and let the rest follow.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a title tag be?

Around 50 to 60 characters as a working guide, though the real constraint is pixel width rather than character count, so titles using wide capital letters truncate sooner. Placing the important words first means a truncated tail costs little.

Are meta descriptions a ranking factor?

No. Google has been explicit for many years that meta descriptions do not influence rankings. They can still affect click-through rate where they are displayed, which is a genuine outcome even though it is not a ranking input.

Why did Google change my title in search results?

Google generates its own titles where it judges the supplied one unhelpful, often drawing on page headings instead. Very long titles, repeated keywords, and titles duplicated across many pages all make substitution more likely, so accurate descriptive titles are rewritten less often.

Should I write a meta description for every page?

Not necessarily. Writing them for pages that matter and allowing Google to generate the rest is a reasonable allocation of effort on a large site, particularly since descriptions are frequently rewritten to match the specific query anyway.

What makes a good meta description?

Around 150 to 160 characters saying what the page contains and why to click, including a specific detail such as a service area, price range, or response time. Specifics distinguish a listing from several identically vague competitors.

Should I include my location in title tags?

For a local service business, yes, and it is frequently missing. Someone scanning results is filtering for relevance to their area, so a location in the title answers the first question they are asking.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. builds websites for businesses across Canada. Search and analytics platforms change frequently, and where practitioners genuinely disagree we have said so rather than presenting one position as settled.

Want someone to look at this with you?

We build and maintain websites for businesses across Canada, and we will take this off your plate entirely.

Start a Conversation