Why is Google changing my title tags?
-
I have a few sites set up this way with their title tags:
"Keyword rich phrase(s) | Company name" and Google is showing more and more of them like this in the SERPs - "Company name: Keyword rich phrase(s)"
I don't see this happening to many other sites...am I hallucinating or what's going on here? Is this happening to anyone else?
I don't see it necessarily affecting rankings, but for my sites with little brand recognition I want those keywords first.
Bueller? Bueller?
-
Hi Guys, Very strange indeed. For my competition, none of their page titles (Not even containing their brand) are being changed in the SERPS. But, mine is. I have to say there might be a correlation with external links. I have been working pretty hard on getting my brand (Journey Beyond Travel) as the dominant keyword that external sites link to me with. This effort allows me to 'clean' my backlink profile which leaned slightly too much on exact-match anchor text. Now that I have gone through and done this, Google has been changing my title by putting my brand first, and then my keyword phrase. Not sure if this is good or bad, but like I mentioned, none of my 'competition' has had their page titles changed and they haven't done much with their backlink profiles. I have been steadily losing my SERP position, which is another issue that anyone is welcome to look into : ) Thanks so much! Thomas
-
Google is changing SERP results to show the brand in front of the title, look at seomoz.org in the search results.
SERP:
SEOmoz: SEO Software. Simplified.Actual Title Tag:
SEO Software. Simplified. | SEOmozI believe it has to do with a verified Google+ page/website, all of the instances I've noticed they were verified.
-
Check a few things:
1. Length: Try and keep them under 70 characters
2. Content: Make sure they aren't spammy.
Either can trigger Googs to re-write your title.
-
They've been changing titles for at least two years, maybe even longer - not sure exactly how long. It's done automatically and all that can be done is to reinforce topical focus around the primary phrases you've integrated into your actual Titles. If you have too much content in a Title, or if there are conflicting signals about a page's focus, Google's system may determine a different Title better represents the page than what you've put out there.
-
I'm having the same issue too with one of my sites. I just noticed this yesterday. Any insight would be appreciated. I've never known Google to change the title of web page. Am I mistaken? Have they done this for a while?
-
Google changes page Titles in their results based on an automated process of evaluating what they think a site / page is about and what their system thinks best represents that page's topical focus. The more signals you refine to integrate your intended title's focus, the less likely they'll do that. You can read their official explanation and see a Matt Cutts video on it here.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Primary keyword in every page title of website
Hi all, We can see many website page titles are filled with "brand name & primary keyword" at suffix. Just wondering how much this gonna help. Or can we remove "primary keyword" from other non-relevant pages and limit the same to important pages to rank well? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Do we need to maintain consistency in page titles suffix?
Hi all, We usually give "brand & primary keyword" across all pages in website like "vertigo tiles". Do we need to maintain this suffix across all page titles? What if we change according to the page? Will Google downlook for not maintaining these page titles suffix like I mentioned? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Using Google to find a discontinued product.
Hi Guys. I mostly use this forum for business questions, but now it's a personal one! I'm trying to find a supplier that might still have discontinued product. It's the Behritone C5A speaker monitor. All my searches bring up a plethora of pages that appear to sell the product... but they have no stock. (Wouldn't removing these pages make for a better internet?) No 2nd hand ones on eBay 😞 Do you have any suggestion about how I can get more relevant results... i.e find supplier that might still have stock? Any tips or trick I may be able to use to help me with this? Many thanks in advance to an awesome community 🙂 Isaac.
Algorithm Updates | | isaac6631 -
Google Algorithm change this month - theories ?
Hi Moz fans! If you've not had the chance to check out moz cast go check it out it seems Google has been busy and so much so it broke Moz cast. There has been some discussion on seo round table about the changes and something seems to be going on. I wanted to find out how you guys are all finding it have you had a change in rankings? Any theories on what you think Google is up to? Personally I've seen rather a few of my sites go up in the rankings last week or so. As always look forward to hearing your thoughts and feelings on it Moz.
Algorithm Updates | | GPainter3 -
Google is showing crazy results
Google is showing crazy results in these days sometimes my sites are on top of all keywords sometimes far behind in search engine in same day what is going on ????
Algorithm Updates | | GM0070 -
Google Local Algorithm Changes?
I was wondering if you have heard about any Google Local algorithm changes. We have about 200 franchise locations. Some of our locations have dropped significantly over the past few weeks. Locations that were showing up in the 1-3 positions are now no longer showing on the first page. This is for very relevant phrases for our main line of business (which is also in our business name)... ‘Phrase, CITY NAME’. These locations have plenty of positive Google reviews. We would typically rank well for a phrase like that based on our relevance. I did some brainstorming. Do you think any of these could have any impact? Google is all about things looking and feeling natural including link building, etc. We have used Yext which made a lot of changes across the web to fix addresses, etc. Do you think Google may be seeing this as unnatural? Too many changes at to many sites in to short a period of time? Along those same lines, do you think Google may be penalizing some of our franchise pages for being to ‘perfect’? It would be ‘natural’ for addresses to have some difference across the web and a bit unnatural to have them all match so perfectly. I know that Google has always stated the business name should be listed in Google Local the way it is listed to the general public. Things such as “Business Name Boston” should be listed as “Business Name”. Each of our franchise locations is named in house to reflect their geo location..... "Business Name Boston", "Business Name St. Louis". Many of our competitors also use the practice of attaching geo terms as well. Do you think we may be getting hit with a penalty now even though we have listed things on Google with the Geo term for years.... and is how WE refer to each location? Is it possible that by working with Yext, we drew attention to this practice? Should we remove our local listings geo term on Google Local? How about across the web? We are in a business that does not require customers to come to our location. Some of our locations have not suppressed the address in their local listings while others have. Many of our competitors have not. Do you think this could play into it? Some of our locations that are not showing in Local have good organic results. Have you heard anything about Google dropping Local if they show in organic? I know Google has been looking at social media more and more and I believe they will continue to do so. If our local pages have no social presence, could this adversely affect things? (I think this is probably not the case…. but wanted to throw it out there) I have noticed that in some cases where Local has dropped, we have multiple offices in that metro area. Is it possible that this could affect things? Have you heard of any Local algorithm changes? I know they are releasing a new dashboard sporadically, could this be in conjunction with a larger Local algorithm change? Our CMS tool does not allow us to change Title/Meta per page (I know... terrible!!). So every page has the same title and same meta description. (We are changing our CMS system! Can't wait!). Could this play into it? Thanks for any feedback!
Algorithm Updates | | MABES1 -
Google Update?
We have a website that for the past several weeks has been very consistent at between 13,500 and 14,200 daily visits and this site received 15,600 last Thursday. THIS week, Monday is at 22,200, Tuesday is at 26,200, and at mid-day today (at about our traffic halfway point in the day) we're already at 14,000 today. This was a site that was bringing about 14,000 visits as of May 16th last year and dropped to 11,000 the following week. The traffic to this site this week is so far beyond statistical analysis that there must have been something that happened.
Algorithm Updates | | sourcelinemedia0 -
Google.ca English and French returning different rankings
French Keyword : "Chauffage électrique" Currently Ranking 4th on Google.ca (French) It is not even top 50 on Google.ca (English) Why so much gap between them? Both are on Google.ca, just different language. Also, when searching the keyword on Google.ca (English), all the results shown are in french anyway ! Why is mine way off ? How can I help the ranking on the EN version? Why does Google.ca FR and EN have different rankings?
Algorithm Updates | | Kezber0