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#7930 – Can I get characters counters meta data in green for Google recommended ranges?

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Sunday, 20 June 2021 09:36 UTC

Hi,

The sh404sef meta-data character counters always confuse me. Blue orange red and counting backwards? I just want to get it in green ;-)

Especially the counting backwards from 320 on description tag always confusing me. I think 320 is much to long and I don't want Google to truncate my description. So every time I have to do the math again. I want to be sure to stay between the optimal Google values. So (320-140) - (320 - 160) = 180 - 160.

I think a count up would make more sense as the Google values are well known and used on other places. With count up I will see directly when I arrived between 140-160 for description and 45-60 for Title, the recommended values as you also describe in https://weeblr.com/documentation/products.sh404sef/4/going-further/seo/meta-data-per-url.html

Maybe this is a feature request. Is it possible to get a green counter when the values are between the recommended Google values? In that case, I only have to take care that all my title and description fields counters are colored green.

Or, if that is not possible, is there a way I can get an orange colored counter on 160. So I will be warned as soon as I pass the Google maximum advice.

By the way, is there a way to get those counters also in front-end edit mode?

Many thanks in advance, Nico

Monday, 21 June 2021 10:33 UTC

wb_weeblr

Blue orange red and counting backwards?

Yes, it tells you how many caracters you have left. Once you go above that, you're in the red.

I think 320 is much to long and I don't want Google to truncate my description.

Google will not use your description in more than 30-40% of search results display. And they'll almost always cut it off, unless it's really short. And if it's short, it loses its purpose. 320 is what they had as mximum displayed length in 2019/2020 so I just stuck with that for now.

140-160 for description and 45-60 for Title, the recommended values as you also describe in https://weeblr.com/documentation/products.sh404sef/4/going-further/seo/meta-data-per-url.html

The documentation needs updating, it's several years old and I'll try update it. Google never recommended any caracter length for either title or description. For title, we know they display it in a way that does not exceed 600 pixels on desktop. For description, there's no such things but experiments, at various point in times, showed they would not display description longer than this or that.

They kept switching from about 160 to 320 for a while, then these days are back to roughly 160.

However, they insist on the fact, especially for titles, the only ranking factor, on not making it short but instead using whatever length is required to properly title the item content. For that reason, on 4SEO, I stopped using counters entirely and display a live SERP preview instead. But even that is not entirely true for the title, as push people to create titles that are often too short. I have no good solution for that at the moment, but will get back to it at some point.

Is it possible to get a green counter when the values are between the recommended Google values? In that case, I only have to take care that all my title and description fields counters are colored green.

Like I said, there's definitely no Google recommended values. They even advice (see Search off the records podcast for instance) to go above the "SEO" recommended limits.

I will change the description upper limit in some upcoming version, thanks for chiming in!

Best regards

Yannick Gaultier

weeblr.com / @weeblr

Monday, 21 June 2021 10:46 UTC

Thanks man for all the info. I am fine with it. It was a question I played around for years ;-)

Ticket can be closed,

Nico

Monday, 21 June 2021 10:49 UTC

wb_weeblr

Hi again

Closing this ticket now, feel free to open a new one as needed. If you do so, please mention this ticket number in the new one.

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Best regards

Yannick Gaultier

weeblr.com / @weeblr

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