Snippet Peek — Lightweight SEO Title + Description Checker

Snippet Peek is a lightweight, one-file PHP tool that pulls the <title> and <meta name="description"> from any public URL and shows the character counts. It’s built for quick “does this look right?” checks while you’re editing pages.

It’s intentionally simple: one PHP file, a basic form, and a small results box. No database, no frameworks, no extra pages.

How to use it

• Save the file below as snippet-peek.php anywhere on your site.
• Visit it in your browser, paste a URL, click Preview.
• You’ll see the title + description and the character counts.

snippet-peek.php

<?php
declare(strict_types=1);

/**
 * Snippet Peek (lightweight)
 * - Fetch a URL
 * - Extract <title> and <meta name="description">
 * - Show character counts
 */

function h(string $s): string {
    return htmlspecialchars($s, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
}

function normalize_url(string $url): ?string {
    $url = trim($url);
    if ($url === '') return null;

    // Require http(s) and a valid URL
    if (!preg_match('~^https?://~i', $url)) return null;
    if (!filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL)) return null;

    return $url;
}

function fetch_html(string $url, int $timeout = 6, int $maxBytes = 220000): array {
    if (function_exists('curl_init')) {
        $ch = curl_init($url);
        curl_setopt_array($ch, [
            CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
            CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
            CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS      => 4,
            CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT => $timeout,
            CURLOPT_TIMEOUT        => $timeout,
            CURLOPT_USERAGENT      => 'SnippetPeek/1.0',
            CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER => true,
            CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST => 2,
        ]);
        $body = curl_exec($ch);
        $err  = curl_error($ch);
        $code = (int)curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_RESPONSE_CODE);
        curl_close($ch);

        if ($body === false) return ['ok'=>false, 'error'=>"Fetch error: $err"];
        if ($code >= 400)    return ['ok'=>false, 'error'=>"HTTP $code"];
        if (strlen($body) > $maxBytes) $body = substr($body, 0, $maxBytes);

        return ['ok'=>true, 'body'=>$body];
    }

    $ctx = stream_context_create([
        'http' => ['timeout' => $timeout, 'user_agent' => 'SnippetPeek/1.0']
    ]);
    $body = @file_get_contents($url, false, $ctx);
    if ($body === false) return ['ok'=>false, 'error'=>'Unable to fetch URL'];
    if (strlen($body) > $maxBytes) $body = substr($body, 0, $maxBytes);

    return ['ok'=>true, 'body'=>$body];
}

function parse_snippet(string $html): array {
    libxml_use_internal_errors(true);

    $dom = new DOMDocument();
    $dom->loadHTML($html);

    $title = '';
    $desc  = '';

    $t = $dom->getElementsByTagName('title');
    if ($t->length) {
        $title = trim(preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $t->item(0)->textContent ?? ''));
    }

    foreach ($dom->getElementsByTagName('meta') as $meta) {
        if (strtolower($meta->getAttribute('name')) === 'description') {
            $desc = trim(preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $meta->getAttribute('content')));
            break;
        }
    }

    $tLen = function_exists('mb_strlen') ? mb_strlen($title, 'UTF-8') : strlen($title);
    $dLen = function_exists('mb_strlen') ? mb_strlen($desc,  'UTF-8') : strlen($desc);

    return [
        'title' => $title,
        'desc'  => $desc,
        'tLen'  => (int)$tLen,
        'dLen'  => (int)$dLen,
    ];
}

$url_in = '';
$error  = '';
$out    = null;

if (!empty($_POST['url'])) {
    $url_in = (string)$_POST['url'];
    $url = normalize_url($url_in);

    if (!$url) {
        $error = 'Enter a valid http(s) URL.';
    } else {
        $f = fetch_html($url);
        if (!$f['ok']) {
            $error = $f['error'] ?? 'Fetch failed.';
        } else {
            $out = parse_snippet((string)$f['body']);
        }
    }
}
?>

<form method="post" style="max-width:720px;margin:18px auto;padding:14px;border:1px solid #ddd;border-radius:10px;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">
  <div style="font-size:18px;font-weight:bold;margin-bottom:8px;">Snippet Peek</div>
  <div style="color:#555;margin-bottom:10px;">Paste a URL to preview its title + meta description.</div>

  <div style="display:flex;gap:8px;flex-wrap:wrap;">
    <input type="url" name="url" value="<?= h($url_in) ?>" placeholder="https://example.com" required
           style="flex:1;min-width:240px;padding:10px;border:1px solid #ccc;border-radius:8px;">
    <button type="submit" style="padding:10px 14px;border:1px solid #ccc;border-radius:8px;cursor:pointer;">Preview</button>
  </div>

  <div style="margin-top:8px;color:#777;font-size:12px;">
    Tip: titles often look clean under ~60 chars; descriptions under ~160–170.
  </div>

  <?php if ($error): ?>
    <div style="margin-top:10px;padding:10px;border:1px solid #e7b2b2;background:#fff1f1;border-radius:8px;">
      <?= h($error) ?>
    </div>
  <?php endif; ?>

  <?php if ($out): ?>
    <div style="margin-top:12px;padding:12px;border:1px solid #d9ddff;background:#eef0ff;border-radius:10px;">
      <div style="font-size:12px;color:#555;margin-bottom:4px;">Title (<?= (int)$out['tLen'] ?> chars)</div>
      <div style="font-weight:bold;margin-bottom:10px;"><?= $out['title'] !== '' ? h($out['title']) : '<em>(none found)</em>' ?></div>

      <div style="font-size:12px;color:#555;margin-bottom:4px;">Description (<?= (int)$out['dLen'] ?> chars)</div>
      <div><?= $out['desc'] !== '' ? h($out['desc']) : '<em>(none found)</em>' ?></div>
    </div>
  <?php endif; ?>
</form>

Optional tweaks

• Restrict to your own site: only allow URLs that match your domain.
• Make it even smaller: remove the inline styling and keep plain HTML.
• Increase/decrease fetch size: change $maxBytes in fetch_html().