"Keep titles under 60 characters."

"Keep titles under 60 characters."

Under 60 what? Pixels, not characters.

Google truncates by rendered pixel width, around 580px, so a title full of W's and M's clips early and one full of i's and l's runs long. Here's the real check:

— Stop counting characters. Use a pixel-based SERP preview tool. "Williamsburg Mortgage Workshop" and "illinois title tips" are wildly different widths at the same character count.
— Put the load-bearing words in the first ~480px. Everything after that is a bonus, not a guarantee.
— Mobile truncates differently from desktop. Check both; most clicks are mobile.
— A truncated title isn't automatically bad — if the meaningful part shows, the trailing "..." can even add curiosity.
— Brand at the end is the first casualty of truncation. Decide on purpose whether you're okay losing it.

The character-count rule is a useful lie for beginners. (It's the SEO equivalent of "i before e" — right often enough to teach, wrong often enough to embarrass you.)