Google Algorithm change? - Brand name now overwriting title tag?
-
Anyone else noticing this happening? In Google search results, many of my sites are now showing up in the following fashion...
"Site name: page title"
I read a few articles in the past few days that state that Google may be playing with the algo but have not read anything from Google directly.
I should add that I first noticed this on Feb. 21 and have seen it rolling out more and more since. I have only noticed it on a few competitor websites thus far.
Edit:Some links talking about the subject
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-brand-title-appending-16432.html
http://semandseo.blogspot.ca/2013/03/google-brand-title-in-search.html
http://www.designbigger.com/blog/seo/google-rewrites-page-titles-to-push-brand-over-keywords/
-
I am seeing this too, Google flips the order of our brand name and our USP in our homepage title.
"USP - Brand Name"
now becomes
"Brand Name: USP"
-
Why not just put up the link you are talking about so we can see for ourselves?
-
Thanks for the response Francsisco.
I do not think this it the case but will test regardless. I am noticing some competitors who are not stuffing and they are also being hit by this. At the same time, I am seeing a few competitors who are much more likely to be stuffing and they are not being affected.
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-brand-title-appending-16432.html
Rand, where art thou? Help!
-
That used to happen to me. I changed my title tags to see if Google would display them differently on the next crawl. It didn't work. THen I rewrote them again using completely different keywords and then Google displayed it the way I had written it.
My suspicion as to why this happened to me was I used the words car & auto in the title. I also used rates & cost. Maybe Google thought I was over optimizing my titles. Try it out and see if something changes on your title tags.
-
Dana
I read over at searchengineland that Google is testing something. I will try to find the article shortly. Also, it has been noticed by many that this is only affecting websites homepages.
Mat
Google is overriding the title to display as I mentioned above, regardless of how you have it formatted.
And yes, Mathew is the most awesome way to spell our name
-
Hi Mat,
As a matter of habit, we tend to construct our title tags with the configuration you mentioned: Title | Company Name
I just checked our listings as well as many competitors and they are all showing the title tags as normal, and as we've configured them. I'm not seeing anything different right now.
It could be that Google is testing this and may be serving different results from different data centers or to users in certain locations.
Thanks for the heads up though. I'll keep and eye out for anything different and post back here if I see something different.
Dana
-
Not currently seeing it from here. I'll check it from some proxies tomorrow.
-
I am seeing the same thing happening. Check out the seomoz title in the search results. The company name and title tag are getting flipped.
-
Nice to see another Mathew spelling their name the correct way
Are you talking about people structuring their title tags in that way, or Google over-riding the title tag & showing the title in that format in the snippet?
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
-
Time taken for Google Algorithm updates to show affect in Middle East?
Hello everyone, Just a quick question. Can anyone give me a safe estimate of how much time it could take for a Google Algorithm Update to show its effect in the Middle East after roll out? Maybe you guys can direct me to a post to read through and learn more about it myself. Your input will be highly appreciated. Regards, Talha
Algorithm Updates | | MTalhaImtiaz0 -
What is this new feature on Google?
Hey everyone, I typed "Vancouver Colleges" into Google and this new feature came up which I have never seen. It displays popular schools. Could someone tell me what this is called? And how do I get our college on here? Thank you! 4hnT7bV.png
Algorithm Updates | | jhinchcliffe0 -
How can I check Googles Page Cache ?
Hi I use to have a handy tool in Firefox (Google Toolbar) that was very handy for checking page ranks and what date a page had been cached. For a while with the newer versions of Firefox I cannot seem to locate this useful tool, Can anybody recommend any useful tools for checking the above. Thanks Adam
Algorithm Updates | | AMG1000 -
Google dance/over optimized/paranoid?
Hi guys, hope your all OK and thanks in advance for taking a nosey at this. OK where to start - my rankings for the last 12 months have progressively improved every week, usually of the 300 KWs i track the last few months has seen approx 70 up/70down per week, but the improvements usually outweigh the declines. This week I saw a sudden drop though - 35 improvements and 112 declines. The strange thing was though, the improvements came on the more competitive KWs, and the less competitive words I haven't done much or any back linking for dropped. Seems silly me asking this question when I run that through my head ofcouse KWs you don;t work on will drop like flies? It should be plainly obvious those words would drop off but all have been improving on there own slowly over the last 6/7 months. Now if this was a penalty (nothing showing in webmaster tools) I would have expected it to come through on my KWs I have over done the backlinking for, but these are the 1's that improved. So is it just the Google Dance? I normally see some words such as the big 1 we target DJ Equipment go from position 13 - 24 can change hourly sometimes! Could it just be quite a few have dropped all at once and will pop back up this week? Also if anyone could give us any pointers in general on where you think we should be taking our SEO it would be much appreciated. I know we have been a little lazy with our backlinking and could do with some much better/ industry related websites linking to us, and there are title tags/metas on product page that need sorting.. aside these couple of issue's? DJs Only
Algorithm Updates | | allan-chris0 -
Urgent input needed on huge drop in Google
As of today we got huge drops in SERP across all our pages. We can see a drop between 10 to 80% on most of our pages on this domain: http://www.meresverige.dk Some background info: Never bought any links Yes, did optimize the site, but only in fair way, using SEO moz On-Page Optimization. Most pages get an A-grade No cloaking, all pages do look exactly same to visitors and Google Any input on what this could be? We are hugely grateful for any input that might lead us in the correct direction Have a nice day Fredrik
Algorithm Updates | | Resultify0 -
Decrease in Organic Traffic Due to Google Places
Hello there, we are national junk removal company and have franchises in most major cities in the US. We wanted to check to see if anyone else has seen a drop in organic traffic with the changes that Google has done with the amalgamation of Google Places with the organic rankings. All our places pages are ranking quite well and we are ranking higher organically but it appears that people go to the Google Places page and then either leaving or picking up the phone and calling our 1800 number to book a job instead of going to our website to make the booking. The interesting thing is that although Google started these changes back in October 2010 we have seen the drop in organic traffic mostly starting in April, even though we have seen a steady increase in organic ranking across the board. Has any other franchise based company seen this happen as well? Your feedback is greatly appreciated!
Algorithm Updates | | imspecialistgotjunk0 -
Title of home page is changed to domain name in SERPs
Hi, We have a unique problem, we are getting a totally different title in Google serps for a large site. When we search with domain name with space in google.com. We are getting title as domain name with space. We don't have any Open Directory listing. We don't have any cannonical issues and other pages with title as domain name. Can you please tell us what we have to do get our original title back in SERP ? Thanks, With Regards,
Algorithm Updates | | semshah1430 -
CTR for Google Rankings
I run a local business, and I'm working on ranking for keyword + city. I currently rank on the first page for just about every keyword I'm working on, but only the top 3 for a little less than half. Because the search volume is so low for each keyword (for most cities Google doesn't have an estimated monthly search volume) the grand total of a few searches a month for each keyword + city combination is where I get my traffic. Although I seem to be getting consistently higher in the rankings, I am curious as to how much more traffic I can expect. I read somewhere that sites that are ranked number one are clicked 50% of the time, number two 20% of the time, number three 15% and from there on it goes down fast. Rank 7 and on is below 1%. Probably around 30% of my keywords are ranked between 7-10 and probably about 20% are ranked 4-6. Are the CTR numbers fairly accurate? I understand that there are a lot of influences on CTR, such as title/description, but generally is that somewhat accurate? If it is, I am missing out on A LOT of traffic. I am pulling about 800 unique visitors a month from Google. If I get in the top 3 for most of my keywords, can I expect significantly more traffic? I ask the question because there are many other things I could be doing with my time to help the business aside from SEO. I don't want to be working constantly on SEO if traffic is only going to increase very little.
Algorithm Updates | | bjenkins240