Title tag checker
The title tag is the clickable headline in Google and the strongest on-page signal of what the page is about. A missing or generic title wastes the click you already earned a crawl for.
What we measure
We read the first <title> in <head> and flag it if it is missing, shorter than 15 characters or longer than 60. Those bounds match what search results typically display before they add an ellipsis.
The same run still collects every other check — this page just puts the title in front so you can fix the headline without wading through Open Graph and JSON-LD.
How to write one
Lead with the term the page should rank for, then the brand if it fits. One title per URL; do not reuse a site-wide template that only changes the product name at the end.
Common misses: an empty title, the raw filename, or a 90-character slogan that Google rewrites anyway.
Why the bounds are 15 and 60
Google rewrites titles it considers too short, too long or off-topic, and it does so silently: you keep the tag, the result shows something else. Under 15 characters there is usually no room for the term and the qualifier; above 60 the desktop result cuts the end and mobile cuts earlier. The bounds are display limits measured in characters, not a scoring rule — a 62-character title is not a penalty, it is a headline you no longer control.
The checker reads the first <title> inside <head>. A second <title> in the body, a title injected later by JavaScript, or a page that ships an empty tag and fills it client-side all count as what the crawler sees on the first fetch: the raw HTML.
Common mistakes
The same title on every page of a section (a template that only changes the product name at the end, or not even that). The brand first and the topic last, so the part that gets truncated is the part that carried the term. A title that repeats the H1 word for word, wasting the one place where you can phrase the promise for the result page instead of for the reader who is already on it.
What the audit of https://example.com/ returned on 5 September 2026
As found
<title>Example Domain</title>
<!-- 14 characters → title_short (warn) -->Fixed
<title>Example Domain — reserved names for documentation and tests</title>
<!-- 60 characters: the term first, the reason to click after the dash -->example.com scored 27/100 in that run. The title is not wrong, it is just too short to say what the page is for; the rewrite keeps the name and adds the purpose in the characters the result actually shows.
Questions
Is the title tag a ranking factor?
Yes, it is one of the strongest on-page signals of the page topic, and it is also the headline people click. Both effects are lost when the tag is generic or missing.
Should the title and the H1 be identical?
They can be, but they serve different readers. The title speaks to someone scanning results; the H1 speaks to someone already on the page. Matching the topic is required; matching the wording is optional.
What if my CMS adds the site name automatically?
Count it. If the platform appends “ | Brand” to every page, the 60-character budget includes those characters, and the checker measures the final tag, not the field you typed.
See the full audit in your workspace