Titles and descriptions, in plain words

The title is the blue line in a search result. The description is the grey text under it. The title affects both ranking and clicks; the description affects only clicks, but that is most of the battle. Every page needs its own, and most AI-built sites give every page the same one.

What makes a good title

• Roughly 50 to 60 characters, or the end gets cut off.
• The words somebody would actually type, near the front.
• Different on every page. Twenty pages sharing one title compete with each other.
• The name of the thing, not a slogan. A slogan means nothing to somebody who has never heard of you.

What makes a good description

Around 150 characters, written as a promise about what is on the page. Google rewrites descriptions often, so treat it as a strong suggestion rather than a guarantee. Writing nothing guarantees it invents something, usually the first sentence it finds.

Check yours

View the page source and search for the word title, then for description. If two different pages on your site have identical text there, that is worth fixing before you write anything new.