How to use the SERP preview tool
The Google SERP preview tool allows you to check how your webpage will appear on the search engine results page. This critical feature can provide an accurate view of your title tag, meta description, chosen keywords, and exactly how your users and customers will see your result when performing a Google search.
Here’s how you can use the Google Search Preview Tool:
- Step #1 - First, enter your URL in the required text box.
- Step #2 - Next, enter your desired SEO title tag. Edit and optimize it for length and make sure your focused keyword appears in it. Our title and meta description checker truncates titles longer than 55 characters or 550px on desktop and 62 characters or 560px on mobile.
- Step #3 - Enter your meta description and optimize it for search. Include your focused keyword and secondary keywords in a way that sounds natural. Our tool truncates meta descriptions at 156 characters or 1005 pixels on desktop and 110 characters or 752 pixels on mobile.
- Step #4 - Add any additional info to complete your SERP preview (e.g., publishing date, favicon, rating, etc.). Please note that Google will also bold your relevant keywords. You can do this from our SERP tool by inputting the relevant phrases in the appropriate field. Lastly, check your preview with our title and meta description preview tool.
Once all of the appropriate information has been entered into the SERP preview tool, it will automatically generate a precise replica of how your information will appear in an organic Google search result.
Why you should use the SERP preview tool
Using our Google title tag and meta description preview tool will enable you to format webpage meta metadata correctly. An accurate site description will ensure that your business is:
- Attracting the right customers;
- Giving potential customers all the relevant information that they need about your page;
- Increase your click-through rate and help you stand out on search engine result pages.
Knowing exactly how your URL and meta description will look on a Google search page will allow you to create better-targeted tags for your specific audience and improve the organic rankings for transactional or informational keywords.
Why we created the Google SERP tool
We created this helpful title tag and meta description preview tool to give businesses a detailed look at how Google will showcase their results organically on a search engine results page. Despite being in a competitive industry, our business has managed to significantly increase its organic traffic by optimizing for on-page SEO. We wished we had a simple SERP checker back when we were optimizing all our title tags and meta descriptions in the past, so we have built this tool to help you, as well as our team.
How to create great title tags and meta descriptions with the SERP Preview Tool
Although meta descriptions are no longer a ranking factor, they can significantly impact organic CTR. Titles are still important from an SEO perspective. Together, optimized titles and meta descriptions can help your business stand out in SERPs.
Here are a few tips and tricks that we learned after optimizing our pages for SERPs in the last ten years:
- Keep them short – Meta descriptions should contain no more than 155 characters, and the page title should have no more than 65 characters. Please note that title and meta description limits are not always the same. The search engine may decide to truncate your title before the 65 character limit or rewrite and show up to 320 characters for your meta description. For our title tag preview tool, we followed the recommendations from Screaming Frog. The crawling tool considers that pixel width is a huge factor when determining truncation in titles and meta descriptions. After crawling thousands of pages, we have concluded that this makes total sense. As a result, our Google SERP preview tool truncates based on character count, as well as pixel width.
- Use your focused keywords – Make sure the keywords you use are the most relevant to your webpage but do not overuse them. You are writing for humans, not robots.
- Make sure your description is relevant to your page – This may sound obvious, but so many websites seem to get this wrong. The meta description should summarize your page in 155 characters and also include a call-to-action to incentivize potential visitors to click on your result.
- Make it conversational and easy to read – A friendly and conversational tone is much easier to read and understand. It will appeal to your potential customers, making your business seem more relatable.