You ship a blog post with a clever title. In Google it truncates mid-word because the SERP cuts by pixel width, not by a magic 60-character myth. Product pages inherit a global pattern that appends the site name twice. Category archives look like leftover placeholders. Someone “fixes” one post in the SEO metabox and the next twenty still look wrong.
That is what happens when titles are either freehand chaos or one blunt sitewide string. You need templates per post type (and taxonomy, and archive), variables that pull real data, and a preview that updates as you type using the same width logic Google uses to ellipsis titles.
Rankify is the DaftPlug SEO plugin. This post is about title and description templates per post type, taxonomy, and archive with 25 variables, a live Google preview that updates as you type, pixel-accurate length (Google truncates by width, not character count), and per-page overrides. Supporting context only: schema @graph, Open Graph, and reading Yoast / Rank Math / AIOSEO / SEOPress data in place when you switch. Not the focus: AI crawlers, 404s, content analysis, answer blocks, product schema. For a deeper cut on pixel truncation and schema hygiene, keep WordPress SEO titles, pixel truncation, and schema graph open.
What Rankify actually ships for titles and previews
Feature list for this article:
- Title and description templates per post type, taxonomy, and archive
- 25 variables you can mix into those templates
- Live Google preview that updates as you type
- Pixel-accurate length (width-based truncation, not a naive character counter)
- Per-page overrides when a single URL needs a custom title or description
- Nearby (mention, not focus): schema @graph, Open Graph, reading Yoast / Rank Math / AIOSEO / SEOPress data in place
The contract is simple. Define the pattern once per content type. See the SERP preview while you edit. Override the exceptions. Stop guessing character counts that Google does not use.
Why pixel width beats the “60 characters” rule
Search results render titles in a proportional font inside a limited pixel budget. Wide letters (W, M) eat more space than narrow ones (i, l). Two titles with the same character count can truncate differently. A plugin that only warns at 60 characters is guessing.
A live preview that measures width shows the ellipsis before your audience does. That matters for:
Posts where emotional hooks die at the cut. Products where the differentiating word sits at the end and never appears. Archives where %term% | %sitename% | %sitename% style accidents still ship. Migrations from Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, or SEOPress where old patterns assumed character myths.
Templates per post type beat one global pattern because posts, products, pages, and docs need different shapes. Variables beat hard-coded titles because editors should not retype the site name on every save. Per-page overrides beat forking the whole template for one campaign URL.
How to set templates and trust the preview in wp-admin
Assume Rankify is the active SEO plugin. Run one SEO plugin at a time. If you are migrating, Rankify can read Yoast / Rank Math / AIOSEO / SEOPress data in place so you are not starting from a blank metabox on every URL.
1. Open Rankify title and description templates
In wp-admin, open Rankify’s titles and descriptions (or equivalent templates screen). You should see templates scoped by post type, taxonomy, and archive, plus a variable list (25 variables) and a Google-style preview.
Do not invent a twelve-token masterpiece on day one. Start with a readable pattern:
- Posts:
%title% | %sitename%(or your preferred separator) - Products:
%title% %price% | %sitename%only if those variables exist in the set and match how you sell - Categories:
%term% archives | %sitename%
Adjust to your brand. The point is one owner pattern per type, not artisanal titles on every draft.
2. Build with variables, then watch the live preview
Insert variables from the 25 available instead of hard-coding names, separators, and leftover SEO junk. Type in the template field and watch the live Google preview update.
Check truncation on:
- A short title
- A long title with wide letters
- A title that includes the site name
- A taxonomy label that is already long
If the preview ellipsizes the meaningful words, shorten the template or move the important phrase left. Do not “add more keywords” to the right edge and hope. Pixel width does not care about your keyword list.
3. Set description templates the same way
Descriptions also truncate in the SERP. Use a template per type with a clear primary sentence and a variable for the excerpt or a dedicated description field when you use one. Watch the preview. Kill fluff openers (“In this article we will discuss…”) that waste the first line of pixels.
Keep social cards in mind as supporting context. Open Graph can reuse strong titles and descriptions when appropriate, but this post’s job is search templates and the Google preview. Do not turn the template screen into a dumping ground for every meta feature at once.
4. Override single pages when the pattern is wrong for one URL
Campaign landers, legal pages, and cornerstone guides sometimes need a one-off title. Use per-page overrides in the post editor SEO box. Do not change the global post-type template for one URL, then forget and break the next fifty posts.
When you override, still watch the live preview. Overrides inherit the same pixel problem. A custom title that is too wide still truncates.
5. Smoke-test archives and a sample of each post type
Open a post, a page, a product (if you have them), and a category archive. View the rendered title in the preview and, when you can, fetch the front-end <title> to confirm the template output matches what you configured.
If you migrated from another SEO plugin, spot-check a handful of old posts that had custom titles. Reading prior plugin data in place should preserve intent. If something looks generic, fix the override or the template, not both at random.
Schema @graph can wait for a dedicated pass unless you are already mid-cleanup from the related pixel/schema article. Titles first. Structured data second.
What good looks like
A finished setup feels predictable:
- Each post type, taxonomy, and archive has one clear title and description template.
- Variables fill real data instead of duplicated site names and empty placeholders.
- The live Google preview updates as you type and reflects pixel-accurate truncation.
- Odd URLs use per-page overrides without rewriting the global pattern.
- Only one SEO plugin outputs titles.
- Editors stop asking “how many characters do I have left?” and start asking “does the preview still show the point?”
If click-through is still weak, the template is clear but the promise is dull. Fix the message. The preview cannot invent a reason to click.
Pitfalls (the ones that bite)
Trusting character counters alone. Google cuts by width. Use the pixel-accurate preview.
One global template for posts and products. Different content types need different shapes.
Cramming every variable into one title. Noise truncates faster. Keep the first visible words strong.
Changing the global template to fix one page. Use a per-page override.
Running Rankify beside another SEO plugin. Duplicate titles and fights. One plugin owns the head.
Ignoring archives. Category and taxonomy titles are still SERP real estate.
Skipping migration spot-checks. Old custom titles deserve a quick look after you switch.
Practical checklist before you call it done
- Confirm Rankify is the only SEO plugin outputting titles.
- Set a title template per post type you actually use.
- Set taxonomy and archive templates next.
- Build with variables from the 25 available.
- Watch the live Google preview on short and long examples.
- Add description templates with the same discipline.
- Use per-page overrides only for true exceptions.
- Spot-check migrated posts if you came from Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, or SEOPress.
- Revisit the related pixel truncation and schema graph guide when titles already look clean.
Takeaway
SERP titles fail in public. Character myths, one-size templates, and blind overrides are how sites publish truncated nonsense. The fix is a template per content type, variables that pull real data, and a preview that respects pixel width while you type.
Rankify gives you those title and description templates, 25 variables, a live Google preview, pixel-accurate length, and per-page overrides when one URL needs an exception. Set the patterns once. Override sparingly. Trust the preview over folklore.
One Pro membership unlocks Rankify plus Progressify, Lightify, Generatify, and Snapshotify. New Pro plugins join existing memberships. Plans differ by site count only. See pricing when you want titles that survive the SERP cut.
Write one template per post type. Watch the pixels. Publish titles Google can actually show.