Google typically displays 155–160 characters of a meta description on desktop and around 120 characters on mobile before truncating with an ellipsis. The actual pixel width matters more than character count—Google measures roughly 920 pixels on desktop and 680 pixels on mobile—but 155 characters is the safe zone that works across both. You'll sometimes see longer descriptions (up to 300+ characters) in search results, particularly for informational queries where Google pulls extended snippets. But you can't control when this happens, and writing 300-character descriptions hoping Google uses them is a waste of time. They usually don't. For the 500+ domains we manage at Ottawa SEO Inc., we target 140–155 characters as the sweet spot. This ensures the critical message and call-to-action fit on mobile, where most traffic originates. Front-load the important keywords and value proposition in the first 120 characters, then use the remaining space for secondary details. Practical considerations that affect length: - Special characters and emojis can throw off pixel width calculations - ALL CAPS consumes more pixels per character - Wide characters like 'W' and 'M' take more space than 'i' or 'l' - Google may rewrite your description entirely if they think their algorithmic version better matches the query If your description gets cut off at a critical point, users see an incomplete thought and click-through drops. Test your descriptions using a SERP preview tool or just search for your pages and check how they render on both desktop and mobile. One common mistake is writing meta descriptions like mini-paragraphs with multiple sentences. Write them like ad copy instead—one clear value statement that makes someone want to click. If you need 200 characters to explain why someone should visit your page, your page positioning is probably unclear. At Ottawa SEO, we treat meta descriptions as micro-sales pitches, not summaries, and that mindset naturally keeps them concise and conversion-focused within the 140–155 range.