Description
Search results usually show roughly 60 characters of a title and 155 of a description. Longer text is often shortened, and Google may pick its own text instead of yours. This plugin uses those numbers as fixed limits, so treat the result as an estimate, not a preview of what Google will show.
This plugin adds one column to your Posts, Pages and other post lists. For each item it shows:
- the length of the SEO title, and whether it is over 60 characters
- the length of the meta description, or that there is none
- whether the description is under 70 characters
Click “Length problems” above the list to see only the items that need work, so you can go through them one by one.
What it reads
The title it counts is, as far as it can tell, the one your site prints: the title your SEO plugin generates, or the WordPress default (post title plus site name). Template variables are filled in by your SEO plugin before counting. Any it cannot fill in are flagged as unresolved. Items set to noindex in the active SEO plugin, or all items when “Discourage search engines” is on, are marked and not counted as problems.
What it does not do
It does not change your content and makes no external requests. It keeps its scan results in a small cache on your site, cleared when content or SEO settings change. There is no account and no settings page.
If you want new titles and descriptions written for the flagged pages, the free Tedrix plugin does that, with a preview and one-click undo. This plugin works fully without it.
Installation
- Install and activate the plugin.
- Open Posts or Pages. The “Google length” column is next to the title.
- Click “Length problems” above the list to see only the items that need work.
FAQ
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Why 60 and 155 characters?
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Google cuts by width in pixels, not by characters, so the exact point varies with the letters used. About 60 characters for a title and 155 for a description is a common rough point on desktop, and mobile can differ, so the limits are an estimate.
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Which post types get the column?
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All public post types with an admin list except media, such as posts, pages and products. Developers can change the list with the
tmlc_post_typesfilter. -
Does it slow down my site?
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It runs only in the admin post lists, never on your public pages. The first time you open “Length problems”, it checks every item of that post type in batches, which takes a moment on large sites. The result is then cached until content or SEO settings change, so later visits are quick.
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Does it work with my SEO plugin?
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It reads the most common SEO plugins, and only the one that is active, since only that one affects what your site prints. Fields left behind by inactive SEO plugins are ignored.
Reviews
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Contributors & Developers
“Tedrix Title and Meta Description Length Checker” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
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Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.0
- First release.