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Does encoded html matter to 155 chars meta-description size limit?

If 155 chars is the limit for meta description tag, does '&amp ;', '&iacute ;', '&ntilde ;' ... affects to that limit adding more chars, or are treated as only 1 character each one of them when counting the 155 chars limit?

For Google...

meta description

What is the real Google meta tag description limit represented? 30 or 12?

Solution

  • The HTML spec does not define a length limit for meta-description values.

    In a SEO context, such a length limit is often recommended, because search engine result snippets have a maximum length, and if a search engine descides to display the page’s meta-description in their snippet, authors might prefer to see their whole meta-description there.

    These limits refer to what gets displayed on the SERP, so it should be of no concern how the text is encoded in the HTML (unless the search engine fails to support HTML character entity references).