The title tag and meta description are getting longer

For a week now, Google has been testing a new presentation of search results (SERP = Search Engine Response Page).

Jonathan Jones was the first to talk about it on his blog and we have indeed noticed that the pages are being displayed in this way more and more regularly.

Google expands the search results page (SERP)

As a result of the “recent” change in the display of Adwords ads (from 3 to 4 results in the body of the page and removal of ads on the right in February 2016), the SERP currently has a large white margin that is often empty.

This change in the display width of search results is significant, since it is 100 pixels gained on the body of the page while the “sidebar” is reduced by only 15 pixels, barely reducing the look of the Knowledge Graph when it is displayed.

This evolution impacts the presentation of results on both desktop and mobile devices and will force you to review the settings of your onpage.

Effect on the <title>

The title> tag < gains 15 characters, from 55 to 70, or about 2 words. We know the SEO impact of this tag when it is well written, and SEO writers are not going to shy away from these 15 characters offered to keywords, especially when we know the quality of hook that this tag is supposed to carry.

My advice: lengthen your <titles> to 70 characters.

Effect on the meta description

The basic meta description also gains about twenty characters and has up to 100 characters on the same line, now only spreading over 2 lines instead of three.

We can think that the editorial limit of this “meta” will be pushed back since there is still space before the end of the line.

Moreover, we know that when queries are long, Google “makes” a snippet with page elements that it finds relevant and in this case displays many more characters on 3 or even 4 lines.

With lines of 100 characters, these descriptions may be more intelligible.

My advice: rework your descriptions accordingly.

I add (updated December 2017) that you should read the following article, the meta description tag having evolved again.

Reminder: “fold” is defined as content that can be read on a screen before any scrolling.

We notice that the fold displays more results, which are more compact.

Where is Google going with these advances?

Currently, these results presentations have not affected the number of snippets per page or the number of paid results at the bottom of the page. But we can expect other developments such as

• More natural results (that would surprise me)
• More Adwords ads (more likely…)
• Presence of Google Also Ask

Every year, Google conducts tests on the presentation of search results officially to improve the user experience, unless it is to optimize its revenues… Oh! I’m probably a bad tongue.