Page title and meta description check sheet for small business websites: every page, missing, copied and too-long titles in one Google Sheet

Updated 24 Oct 2026 · Disclosure: the website crawler linked below is an Unadhi product on the Apify Store. This guide is free, and the same sheet works with a free crawl export from other tools. Current Apify pricing is only on the Store page. This page has no affiliate links and nobody paid to be mentioned.

The finished sheet

pages tab (example rows are made up; settings: title 60, description 160, thin page 150 words)

The payroll row is the most common problem on small business sites: a page copied from another page keeps the old title and description, so both pages look the same in search results.

Who this is for

Owners of small business websites (shops, clinics, accountants, trades, restaurants) and the freelancers and small web agencies who look after them. Search engines often show a page's title and meta description in the results, so a missing, copied or cut-off one costs clicks. Checking them page by page in a browser is slow; this sheet shows every page at once.

Step 1: crawl the site into a tab named crawl

With the website crawler

Open the Website Content Crawler (Half Price) on the Apify Store and use this input with your site's address:

{ "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://your-site.example/" }],
  "maxPagesPerSite": 500, "maxDepth": 5, "useSitemap": true,
  "minWords": 0, "outputMarkdown": false }

• maxPagesPerSite: set it above the number of pages on the site (the default is 50).
• minWords: set it to 0. The default of 20 skips near-empty pages, and those are exactly the pages you want to see here.
• outputMarkdown: this sheet does not need the page text, so switch it off to keep the file small. The word count is still delivered.
• useSitemap adds the pages listed in your sitemap (found through robots.txt), so pages with no internal links are included too.

The crawler follows robots.txt. Run it on your own site or a client's site that you look after.

In the run, export the dataset as CSV. In your Google Sheet use File → Import → Upload, "Insert new sheet", and name the tab crawl. Do not rename the headers.

What the columns contain

• url: the page address after any redirect.
• title: the page's <title>. If the page has none, the crawler uses its og:title, so a page that shows a title here can still lack a real title tag; check those by viewing the page source.
• description: the meta description, or the og:description if there is none (same caution).
• wordCount: words in the page's main content, after menus, footers and cookie banners are removed.
• canonicalUrl: the address in the page's canonical tag, empty if there is none.
• language, headings/0, headings/1 and so on: the page language and its main headings (H1 to H3), useful for a second pass.
• A page whose main text exactly matches a page already delivered is skipped as a duplicate, so exact copies do not appear as rows.

Free routes

Google Search Console (free, for a site you own) shows which pages are indexed and the searches they appear for, but not a title and description list. Free desktop crawlers such as the free version of Screaming Frog SEO Spider (up to 500 addresses) export titles and descriptions too; paste their columns into a crawl tab with the same header names and the formulas below work unchanged.

Step 2: the settings tab

Add a tab named settings. Type 60 in B1 (longest title), 160 in B2 (longest description), 150 in B3 (fewer words than this counts as a thin page) and 20 in B4 (shortest title). These are our working numbers, not Google rules: Google sets no fixed length and cuts titles and snippets to fit the screen. Change them to suit your site.

Step 3: build the pages tab

Add a tab named pages. Row 1 holds the headers below; row 2 holds the formulas, which you copy down one row per row of crawl.

Notes on the formulas:

• COUNTIF ignores upper and lower case, so Payroll services and payroll services count as the same title. COUNTIF also treats * and ? as wildcards; if a title contains them, check column H by eye.
• Canonical points elsewhere is not always a mistake: a filtered shop page or a print version should point to the main page. It is a mistake when a normal page points to the home page or to another page by accident.
• Thin page is a prompt to look, not a verdict. A contact page can be short and fine; a service page with 40 words usually needs more about what you do, where and for whom.

Step 4: fix in this order

1. No title and Title used elsewhere on pages that sell something (services, products, booking). Write a title that says what the page offers and, for a local business, where.
2. No description and Description used elsewhere on the same pages. Google may still write its own snippet from the page text, but a clear description gives it a good option.
3. Long title on the pages with the most visits (Search Console shows which). Put the words that matter first, so a cut-off title still makes sense.
4. After the fixes, run the crawler again, re-import the crawl tab with "Replace current sheet", and check that the Issues column has emptied.

Check before you act on it

• The number of rows is close to the number of pages you expect. If it is much lower, raise maxPagesPerSite or maxDepth, or check that minWords was 0.
• For a page whose title looks wrong, view the page source: the value may have come from og:title rather than the title tag.
• The length numbers in settings are a rough guide. What matters is that each title and description is unique, accurate and says what the page offers.

Partner programme opening soon

Partner programme opening soon: join the free waitlist. Planned terms are 50% of each referred sale (75% once you have 5+ paying customers), single level, paid through Gumroad only from revenue received.

Sources

• Website crawler inputs and outputs (startUrls, maxPagesPerSite default 50, maxDepth, useSitemap, minWords default 20, outputMarkdown; per-page url, title with og:title fallback, description with og:description fallback, language, canonicalUrl, headings, wordCount; exact-duplicate pages skipped; robots.txt followed): Apify Store listing.
• Title links and how Google may rewrite them: Google Search Central, Influencing title links in Google Search.
• Meta descriptions and snippets: Google Search Central, How to write meta descriptions.
• Canonical tags: Google Search Central, How to specify a canonical.
• Google Sheets COUNTIF, TEXTJOIN, LEN and INDEX/MATCH functions: Google Docs Editors Help.

Related

• Web agency client website contact check sheet
• WooCommerce to Shopify 301 redirect map sheet
• Google Shopping product listing check sheet

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Unadhi Guides are free, independent explainers. We correct errors as soon as we find them: write to mininglife7@gmail.com.