Detailed Meta Tag Data Required

[Alan Perkins]

For each major search engine:

1) Does the search engine use the title and meta description tag on its SERPs?
2) If so, what is the minimum, typical and maximum displayed length (in characters, words, etc.) of the title and description as used on that SE's SERPs?
3) If the tag content is longer than this, how is truncation handled (e.g abruptly, end of previous word, with/without ellipsis, etc.)?

Thanks!

[ihelpyou]

Title tag probably should be kept up to 70 characters. I have had more and do not think it matters much. Have had much less as well. The engines seem to cut it off at random depending where the term is in the title. Inktomi will show two full lines of the title. They all vary.

The description tag truly does not matter at all. Just don't go overboard. I really do not think these things are very important anymore Alan. I see no evidence of good or bad affects in any instance.

I know we all see readings from people saying this and that about the number of characters in both, but In My Opinion, it just is not important.

[Alan Perkins]

I'm not asking for the purposes of "ranking". I'm asking for the purposes of "copywriting". i.e. how much scope do I have to write a title and description these days? And how widely does it vary across the major engines?

[ihelpyou]

Varies widely Alan. Some are 55... some are much longer. I do not know figures as I optimize all as one search engine. Have not really cared about the exact figures for each engine. This may be posted at each search engine's site?

[Alan Perkins]

So what numbers do you use? 70 characters for the title, how many for the description?

[ihelpyou]

Some pages 70, some much shorter. It all depends on the page and what keywords I am targeting for that page. Description is the same way. I prefer short descriptions.

[MsSearch]

titles i shoot for a maximum of 70 characters....

description i try to keep around 150 characters but no more than 200 characters...

[markymark]

Alan,

For the Title tag, it is easy. If your title is truncated in the title bar of IE or NN, it is too long. I think IE can fit about 64 characters, so I never go over that.

As for description, I like short descriptions too. I also like readable, decent copy in descriptions. The Looksmart editor approach of one descriptive sentence explaining the services and a second call to arms/action type sentence works well for me.