Gary Illyes has discussed regarding hard limits when it comes to title tag length. Later on, he has also talked about title tags in details.
Ideal length of Title Tags
Title tags are generally measured in terms of pixels. It has been recommended to use a title tag that is about fifty to seventy in character. Character limits are generally decided based on how it is displayed over the desktops or mobile screens.
If the title tags are lengthy than it is recommended by Google then it is generally cut in the search engine result page. Therefore, full title cannot be read in the SERPs if it is more than 70 characters.
By the SEO websites, it is recommended to use a title tag between 50 to 70 characters as it can be shown fully in the SWERPs. In reality, it has nothing to do with the recommendation by Google. SEO community has rather invented the limit as a standard that is approved by Google to be displayed on the SEERPs. In addition, title tag does not affect the rank of the website at all.
So, there is not any reason to limit the title tags under 70 characters for the ranking purpose.
Title tag recommendation by MOZ
By MOZ, 50 – 60 characters have been recommended for the title tags. However, they have also mentioned that there is not any actual limit when it comes to use of characters with title tag.
“Optimal title length
Google typically displays the first 50–60 characters of a title tag. If you keep your titles under 60 characters, our research suggests that you can expect about 90% of your titles to display properly.
There’s no exact character limit, because characters can vary in width and Google’s display titles max out (currently) at 600 pixels.”
Title tag recommendation by Ahrefs
Similar to MOZ, Ahrefs has also recommended title tags to be between 50 and 60 characters. However, they have not given any warning like MOZ regarding character limitation.
It is said “Google starts cutting off title tags in the SERPs after around 50–60 characters. (Well, it’s actually based on pixels, but 50–60 characters is a good rule of thumb.)
So keep your title tags around this length.”
Title tag recommendation by SEMRush
Further SEMRush has recommended limiting the length of title tag based on its effectiveness.
It has been said,
“Limit The Size Of Your Title Tag
The most effective title tags are around 10-70 characters long. These include spaces so keep this in mind when coming up with your Title Tags.
If it is too long, the title tag will be cut off from the display not revealing the full message.”
Google’s John Mueller and Gary Illyes regarding the length of Title Tag
On the occasion John Mueller has asked
“I have a question that is, maybe, just a yes or no thing, Gary. “Is there a value in having title tags that are longer than the displayable space and the sections of it?”
Replying to Gary Illyes has said
“Yes”
Further, he has added
“The title length, that’s an externally made-up metrics.”
“The reason why I try to steer people away from thinking about concrete numbers is it’s not even about how we display titles, but rather, how we construct our serving index and how we tokenize the page itself.
Technically, there’s a limit, like how long can it be anything in the page, but it’s not a small number. It’s not 160 characters or whatever – 100, 200, 20, or whatever.”
So, the bottom line is Google does not recommend a particular length for a title tag.