Seo
Jun 21, 2026
Why Your SERP Preview Tool Shows One Thing and Google Shows Another — How Snippets Are Actually Constructed
Google's snippet length is measured in pixels, not characters — a title full of wide characters (W, M) gets truncated earlier than one full of narrow characters (i, l). And Google generates its own description 60-70% of the time anyway, using the most query-relevant excerpt regardless of your meta description. Here's the three sources Google uses for the displayed title, why the same page shows different snippets for different queries, and what SERP preview tools can't simulate.