Search Engine

Maximum number of characters in
Page Title

Maximum number of characters in
Description

Search Engine takes its desription info from the page's Meta Data

AltaVista

70

150

Y

AOL

70

249

N

Direct Hit

130

250

Y

Excite

80

200

Y

Google

70

170

N

Inktomi

80

200

Y

LookSmart

55

no limit

N

Lycos / FAST

90

200

N

Northern Light

70

150 - 200

N

Open Directory

100

25 - 30 words

N

Web Crawler

80

200

Y

Yahoo

60

200 / 25 words

Y

This chart should help you to determine the most effective length for your page titles and descriptions.