If you’re one of the smart PR pros who has learned how to optimize content for search engines you’ve been writing pithy headlines that are under 65 characters. Well, here’s a head’s up. Google has changed the way they display content on a search results page. They’re not judging the length of a title tag or headline by the number of characters anymore, but by pixel width of the letters.
Take a look at these side by side results from a post by Lois Perex on Blog360i:
PR pros are not usually familiar with design elements such as CSS and pixel width, but you can shorten your headlines to compensate. And shorter headlines are better for mobile search results anyway. As mobile is rapidly becoming the preferred device for consumers to perform research on and purchase with in the U.S. it makes sense to adjust your writing to these new parameters.
The 2013 Mobile Path-to-Purchase study by Telmetrics and xAd shows that 50% of respondents said they use their mobile devices to start the search process; 46% use mobile exclusively when performing research online.
New Rules
Title tags for web pages and headlines for articles, news releases and blog posts should preferably be 50 characters. Maximum is now 58 characters.
You can still make your description tag or subhead 150 characters. The news display rules are not being used on the description content.
For more tips on how to write news content for the digital age, read SMART News.
