RankHive

Title too long

Where you see it: Bing Webmaster Tools → SEO → Site Scan → the issues in a scan report

Bing’s Site Scan crawled these pages and found a title tag longer than its check allows. Bing fits titles into the space a result has, so a long one can be cut short, and the words that get dropped may be the ones that say what the page is. Bing’s guidelines warn about missing, duplicate and overly short titles; for long ones, the cost Bing describes is truncation.

Fix the template first, then titles on pages that get visits.

On WordPress a long list usually means one template adds the site name to every title, and one setting clears most of it. After that, shorten titles where the cut would hide the topic, on pages people reach from Bing. Paginated archives, noindexed pages and old posts nobody lands on can stay as they are.

Check a URL nowCan RankHive fix it? Yes

Check the URL Bing Webmaster Tools listed

Paste a URL from the Site Scan list. The checker reads the live title tag, measures its width and previews where a desktop result would likely cut it. Its default width estimates Google’s layout; Bing publishes no figure for its check, so a title that fits is a target, not a guaranteed pass.

Read the tags from a URL

Fetches the live page and fills in its title and description below.

Or type them

57 characters · measuring… of ~600 px
150 characters · measuring… of ~920 px (likely cut off)

Checks that it appears in the part of the title that shows.

Warnings

  • description: About 1050px wide, past the ~920px desktop estimate, so it is likely cut on every device.

Google result preview

Desktop

example.com › blog › post

How to Change Your WordPress SEO Title (Yoast, Rank Math)

Where the SEO title lives in Yoast SEO, Rank Math and plain WordPress, how to change it for one post or every post, and which …

Mobile

example.com › blog › post

How to Change Your WordPress SEO Title (Yoast, Rank Math)

Where the SEO title lives in Yoast SEO, Rank Math and plain WordPress, how to change it for …

An approximation: Google changes its layout, may rewrite titles and descriptions, and publishes no mobile width, so the mobile preview simply wraps long titles onto a second line.

Width limits used (estimates you can change)

Google does not publish how wide a title or description can be. It cuts them to fit the results layout, which changes over time and differs by device. These defaults are estimates in common use by SEO tools, measured in Arial (20px for titles, 14px for descriptions). Change them if you trust different numbers.

Need alternatives? Draft them with the SEO title generator and the meta description generator, then paste them back here to check the length.

Reading the result

  • A title warning that it is past the ~600px desktop estimate: the end is likely cut in results too. Put the topic first and trim from the end, starting with the site name.
  • The title ends in a separator and your site name, or shows the name twice: a template adds it. Fix the template once, and remove the name from any post’s own SEO title.
  • No warning, yet Bing still lists the URL: the title may have changed since the scan, or Bing’s cut-off is shorter than this estimate. Re-scan before trimming further.
  • Indexable reads “No: noindex found”: the page is kept out of search anyway, so its title length costs nothing. Leave it.

The same tool with its full guide: Title & Meta Checker

Why it happens on WordPress

On WordPress the title tag is assembled, not typed. Without an SEO plugin, core joins the post title and the site title; with one, a template per content type decides. So long titles arrive in batches.

The site name bolted onto every title

Yoast SEO’s default template for posts and pages is %%title%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%, and Rank Math’s is %title% %sep% %sitename%. Both pull the name from Settings → General → Site Title. A long business name squeezes every post title at once.

Headlines written for the page, not the result

Unless a post has its own SEO title, WordPress starts the title tag with the post title, the same text as the heading on the page. A headline that works as an H1, like “Everything we learned rebuilding a 1970s camper van over two summers”, overflows once the template adds the rest.

Page numbers on archives

Yoast’s %%page%% variable adds text such as “Page 2 of 4” on /page/2/ and later pages of an archive, and Rank Math’s %page% does the same. A category title that fitted on page one tips over on every page after it.

WooCommerce product names

Product names often carry brand, model, size and colour, and the Products template in Yoast SEO or Rank Math adds the store name on top.

A theme that ignores the SEO plugin

Older themes print their own title tag in header.php instead of declaring title-tag support. The plugin’s shorter title never reaches the page, or the page ends up with two title tags.

How to fix it

Start with the pattern, not the page. Find what the long titles share and fix it where it is set.

  1. 1. Download the list from the scan

    In Site Scan, open the scan, click Title too long and download the list as CSV. Bing sorts it by page depth, so your homepage and top sections come first.

  2. 2. Measure one page from each group

    Group the CSV by URL pattern: posts, pages, /product/, /category/, /page/2/. Run one URL per group through the checker and note what pushes it over.

  3. 3. Shorten the template when the site name is to blame

    Drop or shorten the site name in the template. That fixes every post without a title of its own.

    • Yoast SEO: Yoast SEO → Settings → Content types → Posts (and Pages, Products), SEO title.
    • Rank Math: Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta → Posts → Single Post Title.
    • SEOPress: SEO → Titles & Metas → Post Types.
    • All in One SEO: All in One SEO → Search Appearance → Content Types.

  4. 4. Give important pages a shorter SEO title

    For posts and pages that bring visitors, write their own SEO title, topic first. The heading on the page stays as it is.

    • Yoast SEO: open the Yoast SEO box in the editor, then Search appearance, and edit SEO title.
    • Rank Math: click the Rank Math icon, then Edit Snippet on the General tab, and edit Title.
    • SEOPress: the Titles settings tab of the SEOPress box.
    • All in One SEO: Post Title on the General tab of AIOSEO Settings.

  5. 5. Trim products in the SEO box, not the product name

    Renaming a product changes it on the shop page and in the cart. Yoast SEO, Rank Math and SEOPress add their box to the product editor; set the shorter title there.

  6. 6. Remove a hardcoded title tag

    View the page source and find the title tag. Two of them, or one that ignores your SEO plugin, point to header.php; whoever maintains the theme should swap it for title-tag theme support. Then purge your page cache and CDN.

Check the fix in Bing Webmaster Tools

Site Scan doesn’t recheck by itself. Run a new scan once the shorter titles are live.

  1. Load a few fixed pages in the checker to confirm it reads the new title, then view each page’s source to make sure there is only one title tag.
  2. In URL Inspection, run Live URL on one of them to see what Bingbot fetches now. Live URL doesn’t follow redirects, so inspect the final address.
  3. In Site Scan, choose Start new scan with the same scope as before. Bing keeps up to five scans; delete the oldest if you already have five.
  4. When it finishes, open Title too long and compare its page count with the previous scan.
  5. Results change only after Bingbot recrawls each page. For important ones, use Request indexing in URL Inspection, which draws on your daily submission quota.

If the scan can’t reach pages behind Cloudflare, check its security events. Cloudflare notes that Site Scan doesn’t crawl from Bingbot’s IP range, so its managed rule for fake Bing bots can block the scan.

Can RankHive fix this?

Yes, one post or page at a time: RankHive writes a shorter SEO title to each post’s field in Yoast SEO, Rank Math or SEOPress. It doesn’t change the plugin’s title template, so a site-wide fix to the site name stays with you.

What it writes, once you approve

  • A shorter SEO title for a post or page, which overrides the template for that page.

What it can’t do here

  • Change your SEO plugin’s title templates or separator.
  • Edit titles of category, tag, author or date archives, or their later pages.
  • Edit WooCommerce product titles.
  • Write titles through All in One SEO, or on a site with no SEO plugin.
  • Read Site Scan results or start a scan in Bing Webmaster Tools.
  • Remove a title tag your theme hardcodes.

Every change is drafted next to the current value and waits for your approval. Each one written is logged in the Change Log, with Revert.

Check the rest of your site while you’re here

The free site check reads your public pages for titles, meta descriptions, headings, canonical tags and schema, and shows what needs fixing. If you sign up, RankHive reads your Google Search Console data every week, drafts the fixes, and writes the ones you approve to WordPress. Nothing changes on your site until you say yes.

Free site check. No sign-up needed.

Related issues

Common questions

What is Bing’s title length limit?

Bing doesn’t publish one. It asks for relevant titles that aren’t overly long, because results have limited space. Put the topic in the first few words so a cut never removes it.

Does “Title too long” hurt my rankings in Bing?

Not directly, as far as Bing documents. Its guidelines tie indexing and ranking risk to missing, duplicate and overly short titles. A long title costs you when the cut hides what the page offers and fewer people click.

Should I remove the site name from my titles?

From long post titles, yes: drop it before you cut the topic. Keep it on your homepage and short titles, where it fits and tells people whose page they are clicking.

Why does Bing flag a title Google shows in full?

Each engine lays out results its own way, and Site Scan applies Bing’s check. If the title leads with the topic and reads well in both, leave it.

How long until Bing shows the shorter title?

Until Bingbot recrawls the page, which Bing doesn’t put a time on. Request indexing, or an IndexNow submission from your SEO plugin, puts the page in front of Bing sooner without guaranteeing when.

Read next

Sources

Checked against these pages on .