Meta tag checker: title, meta description, H1 and canonical

<head>
  <title>Harbor Parka, waxed cotton | Harbor Retail</title>
  <meta name="description" content="A waxed cotton parka with a storm hood, taped seams and a wool-lined collar. Free repairs for the life of the coat.">
  <link rel="canonical" href="https://harbor-retail.example/parka">
  <meta property="og:title" content="Harbor Parka, waxed cotton">
  <meta property="og:description" content="A waxed cotton parka with a storm hood and taped seams.">
  <meta property="og:image" content="https://harbor-retail.example/images/parka-1200x630.jpg">
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Harbor Parka</h1>
  …
</body>

None of these tags reach Google if robots.txt blocks the page. Google can still list the URL from links to it, but without reading its title or description. The robots.txt checker tests a URL against your robots.txt as Googlebot.

How do I check a page's SEO title and meta description?

Paste the URL into the checker at the top of this page. It shows the title and meta description the page serves, the length of each and a preview of the search result, then the H1 and the canonical. To check by hand, open the page source (Ctrl+U in most browsers) and search it for <title> and for name="description".

Is the meta title the same as the SEO title?

Yes. Meta title, SEO title, page title and title tag all mean the <title> element in the page's head, which Google usually shows as the link in a result. Yoast SEO calls the field where you write it the SEO title. What you write there is not always what the page serves: a theme can print its own title, and a page cache can keep serving an old one. The checker reads the page as it is served.

How long should a title tag be?

SEOtto flags titles over 60 characters, which is roughly where Google starts to cut them off, and under 15 characters, which usually means a placeholder. Google truncates by pixel width, so 60 characters is a guide rather than a hard limit.

How long should a meta description be?

SEOtto flags meta descriptions under 70 or over 160 characters. Google cuts the snippet by pixel width, so 160 is a guide too, and it often writes its own snippet from the page text when another passage matches the search better. A missing meta description is a warning, because Google then picks the text itself.

Why does Google show a different title from my title tag?

Google writes its own title link when the title tag is missing, half empty, out of date or nearly the same across many pages, or when it does not match what the page shows. It takes the replacement from the H1, other prominent text, og:title or the text of links to the page. A title that is specific, current and agrees with the H1 is the one most likely to be kept.

Why is Google not showing my meta description?

Google builds most snippets from the page text and uses the meta description when it describes the page better for that search. A description that is shared by many pages or too vague is less likely to be used. A page blocked by robots.txt shows no description at all, because Google cannot read the page.

How long until Google shows a new title?

Until Google recrawls the page, which can take days for a page it visits often and weeks for a deep one. The URL Inspection tool in Search Console can request a recrawl. Check the page here first, so the request is not spent on a cached copy of the old title.

Does the meta keywords tag matter?

Not to Google. Google said in 2009 that it does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking, and SEOtto does not check it.

What does “Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user” mean?

Google read your canonical tag but picked another URL as the main version of the page. Common causes are a canonical pointing to a page with different content, near-duplicate pages, and internal links or the sitemap pointing to a different URL than the canonical names.

Can I check the meta tags of a whole site?

Yes, by monitoring it. SEOtto reads the title, meta description, H1 and canonical of every tracked page on every crawl: up to 25 pages on Free, 500 on Pro and 2,000 on Agency. The Pages tab lists missing, duplicate, too long and too short values, and any filtered list exports as CSV.

Will I get an alert every time I edit a title?

Only if you want one. Every change is recorded in the Changes feed. Each alert channel has its own minimum severity and its own switch for change alerts, so routine edits can stay in the feed without notifying anyone.

Does SEOtto track H2s and Open Graph tags?

Yes. H2s are tracked as a list, and og:title, og:description and og:image as values. Changes to them are recorded as notes rather than alerts.