Meta titles and descriptions for Shopify: the 60/155 character rules

Meta titles and meta descriptions are the two lines Google shows in search results before someone clicks. They're also some of the most consistently misused fields in Shopify catalogs — too long, full of brand padding, or just left blank and inheriting the product title verbatim.

Two specific character counts matter: 60 for meta titles, 155 for meta descriptions. Going over either gets you truncated mid-sentence in the SERP. This is the playbook for writing both within those limits, for Shopify product pages specifically.

Why Google truncates at 60 and 155

Google doesn't enforce hard character limits on meta tags — it enforces pixel width in the rendered search result. But because average character widths in their SERP font are predictable, the practical thresholds work out to roughly:

• ~60 characters for meta titles (varies between 50-65 depending on character width)
• ~155 characters for meta descriptions on desktop, ~120 on mobile

Anything over the threshold gets cut off with an ellipsis. The cut happens at whatever character would push past the pixel limit — so a sentence ending after the cut is wasted, and a sentence cut mid-word looks unprofessional in the SERP.

The conservative approach is to write to 60 / 155 every time. You won't get penalized for going slightly under, you will get truncated for going over. ShelfCopy hard-caps both as a result.

The meta title formula that works

For a Shopify product page, the meta title has three jobs and 60 characters to do them:

1. Make it clear what the product is
2. Surface the most-searched keyword for that category
3. (Optional) Mention the brand

The pattern that works in 2026: Product type | descriptor | Brand

Shopify's default meta title is your product title, which is usually too generic ("Linen Throw") or too marketing-heavy. Rewriting it to match the formula above unlocks a lot of long-tail SEO wins.

What NOT to do in meta titles

• Don't lead with the brand. Brand goes last — keyword first. Shoppers searching "linen weighted throw" need to see those words before "ExampleCo."
• Don't stuff keywords. "Linen Throw | Linen Blanket | Linen Cover | ExampleCo" reads like spam and Google may rewrite your title.
• Don't include the price. It changes. Schema markup handles price in the rich result — meta title is for keywords.

The meta description formula

Meta descriptions have 155 characters to do two jobs:

1. Tell the shopper what they'll find on the page (1 sentence)
2. Give them a reason to click instead of scrolling to the next result (1 short clause)

Pattern: One-line product summary. Specific differentiator or feature.

The mistake every Shopify store makes

Leaving the meta description blank. When you don't set one, Shopify gives Google the first ~155 characters of your product description. That works if your description opens with a compelling sentence — and breaks if it opens with "Introducing our…" or boilerplate that doesn't read as a standalone meta description.

Set the meta description explicitly on every product. It's the single highest-leverage SEO field on a Shopify product page that most stores ignore.

Where to set these in Shopify

In the Shopify admin product editor, scroll down to Search engine listing and click Edit website SEO. You'll get two fields:

• Page title — this is the meta title. Limit: 60 chars.
• Meta description — limit: 155 chars.

Below those fields, Shopify shows a SERP preview — use it. If your title is wrapping to a second line, you're over the pixel limit even if the character count looks fine.

Meta tag mistakes that drag down rankings

1. All products have the same boilerplate meta description. Google ignores duplicate meta descriptions and may rewrite them. Every product needs unique copy.
2. Meta title matches H1 exactly. Some overlap is fine and expected, but if they're identical you're wasting one of two ranking signals.
3. Keyword in meta title doesn't match the description. If your title promises "linen weighted throw" but the page content talks about "throw blanket" without mentioning linen, Google may demote the page for keyword mismatch.
4. Emoji in meta titles. Most renders fine, but some emoji get stripped on certain Google SERPs. Avoid unless the brand depends on it.

How ShelfCopy handles this

ShelfCopy generates meta titles and meta descriptions on every product with hard caps at 60 and 155 characters built into the generation prompt. The output uses the keyword-first patterns above and avoids the empty-marketing-language failure modes by default. Every meta tag generation appears in the diff preview alongside the description, image alt-text, and schema — so you can audit all the SEO fields together before anything publishes.