The 65 characters that decide whether residents click your page

A resident searches Google for "comment on a planning application". They see a list of blue links. The one from your council reads "Find and comment on a planning applicat..." and then stops. The next link reads clearly and says what it does. Many residents pick that one, even if it is a national site or a planning portal that sends them round in a circle.

The blue link is your page title. It is also the name on the browser tab and the first thing a screen reader says when the page opens. When it is clear and short, residents know they are in the right place before they click.

Most council pages get this right. Council tax pages rarely have a problem. Metropolitan districts, Welsh councils, unitary councils and Scottish councils tend to do best. Even so, about one page in five that we check has a title worth a second look, and around half of councils have at least one.

Planning is where titles most often run long: close to half of the planning application pages we check have a title to fix. Blue Badge, parking permit, garden waste, recycling centre and leisure pages also come up more often than average. County councils, Northern Ireland districts, London boroughs and district councils are a little more likely to have pages to look at.

The check fails a page title for one of three reasons. Here is what usually causes each.

The title is longer than 65 characters

This is by far the most common pattern. The words for the service are fine on their own, but the content management system adds the council's full name to the end. A title such as "Apply for, renew or replace a Blue Badge" looks reasonable in the editor. Add " - " and a council name and it runs past the limit.

Patterns we see on pages that fail:

• The service is described twice, as in "Blue Badge scheme – Apply for or renew a Blue Badge".
• Extra words such as "Overview", "Check your eligibility and" or "Complete your" come before the task.
• The council name in the suffix is long, or doubled, so the title ends "Borough Council" or even "Council Council".
• A separator and the site name are added by a template, so editors never see the full title.

The title is missing

Some pages have no title at all. This usually happens on pages built outside the main site: an online form, a booking system, a map or a planning portal run by a supplier.

The title is generic

Once the council's name is taken out, the title says nothing useful, such as "Home", "Services" or "Page not found". Landing pages, section pages and error pages are the usual places this happens.