Maximum title length for Google

Update results interesting...

[djriches]

After the update I have dropped from number 1 to out of the top 400 for some of my obscure keywords. The problem word is in the title at the very end (it's a location).

Ignoring commas and dashes the title length is 79 characters and the last word is 9 characters, so this may be evidence that 70 characters is the max for Google to index properly in titles. This information is in several other posts but I thought it wouldn't hurt to post recent data.

I am not sure as to why the ranking was previously number 1, either they reduced the number of characters allowed this update or the freshness of the page bought it some time before the major update occurred. Luckily the problem is simple to fix ;).

Interested in any other experiences from the update.

<edit> sorry mods, this was meant to go in Google news :( </edit>

[darex]

So you are saying that when a title of a page is longer than about 70 characters google will not put it in its SERPS?

This surely cannot be a hard and fast rule?

[gsx]

No, he/she is stating the the words after about 70 characters are ignored (they cannot be searched on). The page will still be listed and can be searched on other terms within the page or in the first 70 chars of the title.

[topr8]

in the serps i watch google has had a title cut off of 62 characters (including punctuation and spaces) for a long time, this has not changed at the last update as far as i am aware.

so i don't think this is the reason for your slide down the serps

[jaeden]

But is there just a display limit of 62 or a storage limit of 62. I mean does Google only look at 62 characters in your title and ignore the rest when searching? Anyone have proof of this?

[topr8]

the google cache shows full titles if you view source no matter how long they are... therefore it is safe to assume that they index long titles

however i believe any extra value of the keyword being in the title is lost after the 62 char limit.

[brotherhood of LAN]

I think the title cut off limit is 127.

The amount of characters displayed on the page is less probably for viewing reasons.

do an allin title search.
[google.com...]

Type in _ 126,127,128 and 129 times :)

I guess it makes sense from the storage point of view....to the power of 2 and all that.

[annej]

Does anyone know if Google gives any more weight to words early in the title? I keep mine to 60 including spaces.

Anne