How to use the Meta Tag Checker
- Enter the URL of the page you want to check and click Check tags.
- Look at the desktop and mobile Google previews — text that ends in “…” would be cut off in search results.
- Use the pixel meters to see how much room is left. Green means the length is in the recommended range.
- Review the key tags (canonical, robots, viewport, lang) and the full meta table. Click Copy to grab all tags for a ticket or audit.
What is a meta tag checker?
A meta tag checker reads the <head> of a live web page and reports the tags that control how search engines index the page and how it appears in results: the <title>, the meta description, the canonical link, robots directives, the viewport, the character set and the document language. It is the fastest way to confirm that what your CMS or SEO plugin should output is what is actually served.
Why title and description length is measured in pixels
Google doesn't truncate titles after a fixed number of characters. It cuts them when they no longer fit the available width — roughly 580–600 px on desktop at the 20 px font used for result titles. A title full of wide letters like “W” and “M” is cut much earlier than one with narrow letters like “i” and “l”, which is why a 60-character rule of thumb is sometimes too generous. Descriptions are cut at about 920 px on desktop (around 150–160 characters) and shorter on mobile. This checker measures your text with a canvas in the same font size and shows where truncation is likely.
Keep in mind that Google rewrites titles and snippets when it thinks another text matches the query better. A specific, accurate title and description that reflect the page's content are the best way to have yours displayed as written.
The tags that matter most
| Tag | What it does | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
<title> | Clickable headline in search results and browser tabs; a ranking signal. | Unique per page, main topic first, brand last, about 30–60 characters. |
| meta description | Suggested snippet text. Not a ranking factor, but influences clicks. | Unique, benefit-led summary of 70–160 characters. |
rel="canonical" | Tells search engines the preferred URL among duplicates. | Absolute URL, usually self-referencing, exactly one per page. |
| meta robots | noindex removes the page from results; nofollow stops link discovery. | Omit on pages you want indexed (the default is index, follow). |
| viewport | Enables responsive rendering on phones; required for mobile-friendliness. | width=device-width, initial-scale=1 |
<html lang> | Declares the language for search engines, screen readers and translation. | A valid code such as en or de-DE. |
Common meta tag mistakes
- Accidental noindex left over from a staging site — check both the meta robots tag and the
X-Robots-TagHTTP header, which this tool shows side by side. - Canonical pointing to another URL, e.g. every page pointing to the home page. Google then may ignore the page entirely.
- Duplicate titles and descriptions generated from a template. Use the Website Crawler to find them site-wide.
- Relying on meta keywords. Google has ignored the keywords tag for ranking for many years; it does no harm but adds nothing.
Writing new tags? Draft them in the SERP Preview tool or generate the full set with the Meta Tag Generator.
Tools that pair well with the Meta Tag Checker
- SEO Checker & Site Audit — Paste a URL to run up to 70 on-page SEO checks in seconds.
- Open Graph Checker — Preview how your link will look when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, X and Slack.
- Heading Checker — Visualise the heading outline of any page.
- Image Alt Checker — Audit every image on a page in one table: alt text status, file size, width/height attributes, format and lazy loading — with filters and CSV export.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a title tag be?
Why is Google showing a different title or description than my tags?
Is the meta description a ranking factor?
What is the difference between meta robots and X-Robots-Tag?
noindex, nofollow…). The meta tag lives in the HTML, while X-Robots-Tag is an HTTP header that also works for PDFs and images. Both are shown in this checker.