How to check a page's title tag and meta description

Why these two tags matter

The <title> tag and the meta description are the main inputs for how a page looks in search results: the clickable headline and, often, the short text below it. They're also among the quickest fixes on any site. Here's how to check both in a few minutes.

Step 1: Find them in the HTML

Open the page and view its source (Ctrl+U on Windows/Linux, Cmd+Option+U on Mac). Search (Ctrl+F) for:

They should both sit inside <head>:

`html

<head>

<title>Emergency Plumber in Leeds | Smith & Co</title>

<meta name="description" content="24/7 emergency plumbing across Leeds. Fixed call-out price, no hidden fees. Call now or book online.">

</head>

`

Pitfall: on JavaScript-heavy sites, the tags in the raw source can differ from what ends up in the page after scripts run. If they look odd or are missing, compare them with the live DOM in DevTools (F12, Elements panel). Tags that only appear after JavaScript runs may not be picked up reliably by every crawler or social preview tool.

Step 2: Check the title tag

Work through these points:

1. Exactly one title. Zero is a problem. Two (often one from the theme and one from a plugin) is also a problem, because you don't control which one is used.

2. Unique to the page. If every page says Smith & Co, search engines and users can't tell them apart.

3. The topic comes first. Put what the page is about first and the brand last.

4. Not too long. Google truncates titles by pixel width, not a fixed character count. Around 50-60 characters is a widely used rule of thumb for keeping the main words visible.

5. Not stuffed. Plumber Leeds, Leeds Plumber, Plumbing Leeds, Cheap Plumber reads as spam to people and doesn't help.

Before and after:

Google sometimes shows a different headline than your title tag, especially when the title is missing, very long, generic or doesn't match the page. A clear, accurate title makes that less likely.

Step 3: Check the meta description

1. It exists. If it doesn't, the search engine builds a snippet from page text. Sometimes that's fine, but often it's a random fragment.

2. It's unique. A single site-wide description copied onto every page is a common template default.

3. It sells the click. One or two sentences: what's on the page, plus a reason to pick it. Mention concrete details such as price, area, turnaround or what's included.

4. Reasonable length. Snippets are also truncated by width. Many practitioners aim for roughly 120-160 characters. Treat that as a guideline, not a rule.

5. It matches the page. A description that promises something the page doesn't deliver hurts trust and is more likely to be replaced.

Before and after:

Pitfall: don't expect rankings to move from a new description. Google has said it doesn't use the meta description as a ranking signal, and it often rewrites the snippet based on the search. A better description affects how the result reads and whether people click, which is still worth doing.

Step 4: Check the rest of the site for duplicates

One page is easy. Across a site, the usual problems are template-wide: the same title or description on every page, or titles built from a pattern that produces Page 2 | Category | | Brand. If you find a duplicate on one page, check two or three similar pages built from the same template. You'll often find the bug is in the template, and one fix solves all of them.

Quick checklist

Checking more than the title

The title and description are a good start, but a full on-page check also covers headings, alt text, links, the canonical tag, the viewport tag and Open Graph tags. We make Auditfold, which checks all of these from a page's pasted HTML and gives back a ranked fix list in plain words. You can try a sample page without any setup. The steps above work just as well by hand.

Try it