Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Google changes my title in search results randomly, any idea why?
-
hi all,
i recently noticed google changing the title tag of one of my pages in search results for certain keywords...
I've done a bit of a search and see its not uncommon, however from what i can tell they usually change the title if it is too long, or they seem to change the branding location etc...
In my case they are litterally adding key words to it...
Example -
See Image 1 - This is my main keyword - the title displays correctly
See Image 2 - Another keyword - see how google has added "irrelevant" keywords to the title
Any ideas why this happens?
-
Thanks for the info Sorina, i agree with you that Google decided the page is also relevant for the keyword cctv cameras...
But i disagree with google.. lol.. i mean, we have a cameras page, the recorder page has nothing to do with cameras, there are no cameras on that page, it is recorders...
Just seems a little odd to me... I will try lengthening the title as it is a little short (only 36 characters)... perhaps if its a bit longer they wont bother adding to it...
Thanks again
-
In some cases Google rewrites the title of web pages in its search results pages. Here is the exact answer from a Google Employee about this issue:
In general, when we run across titles that appear to be sub-optimal, we may choose to rewrite them in the search results. This could happen when the titles are particularly short, shared across large parts of your site or appear to be mostly a collection of keywords. One thing you can do to help prevent this is to make sure that your titles and descriptions are relevant, unique and compelling, without being "stuffed" with too much boilerplate text across your site.
(source: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/webmasters/GxPvar_uSwE/ARAsgZ5Rt0kJ)
In your case I believe Google decided that your page is also relevant for the keyword "CCTV Cameras" and added that to the page title.
-
sorry
I just realised in image 2 i used the words "scrolling down" suggesting the search result in question is on page one... my mistake - it is not, the search result in question is on the second page of results...
The images were just to show people the same website page with different tittle tag in google search results...
-
just logged out and tested, i still get the same...
i should point out with image 2 - there is another of our pages that ranks on page 1 for the keyword in that image... but if you go to page two, it shows the page reffered to in image 1 - and you can see the different title...
-
I'm getting different results then you,
I can see your login to your Google account, try login out or if your using Chrome use incognito to search.
What you got, same or different?
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
-
Has the keyword planner search volume metric gone crazy?
I use the search volume found in keyword planner to score and weight my keywords in a similar way as Rand showed us in this WBF. This week I've found that in many cases suddenly the singular and plural version of the keyword have the same search volume. This seems crazy to me as singular and plural is not the same, the intent is different but more importantly they behave very differently from each other when looking at their track record in Adwords (impressions, clicks, conversions, CTR, CVR etc...all different). For example, here's a screenshot of 4 keywords (singular and plural versions of 2 phrases) with search volume captured a couple of months ago. Now here's another screenshot of the same keywords taken from Keyword planner today. Any ideas why this would be happening? Does it makes sense to you? It just seems buggy to me. Thanks!
Keyword Research | | E_F0 -
Does Using Brand/Company Name in Title on Multiple Pages Cause Cannibalization
I'm trying to rank for brand-name related keywords for a website. Most of the titles on the site include the page topic followed by the brand-name separated by bars or dashes (ex: title= widget | My Brand). Is this creating cannibalization for the brand-related terms? I was wondering if it was better to leave the brand out of the title all together except on a dedicated page. However, due to the nature of the business I work for there are multiple recognized iterations of the name including acronyms and long-form and short-form versions and creating content for each targeted iteration seems superfluous.
Keyword Research | | BiskEd1 -
Precise or longer title for service page?
i am a little confused as to how should i create my META TITLE and on page h1 title
Keyword Research | | sagive
for a service page... Say that page offers "web marketing" service... i know or think i know that precise title ranks higher
on the search results but its less appealing Meta title example:
web marketing | company name On page title:
Web marketing Now, the more compelling title would be of-course longer but less focused 1. Do you think i can test it without hurting my positions permanently?
i have query (i see the stats on Google webmaster tools) that
i get 20,000 views monthly but only 1% clicks... 2. how would you build a title for such a page (meta and onpage)? Would really appreciate your professional view Best regards, Sagive SEO.0 -
Google recommended dropdown in search bar
When Google drops down and tries to predict what you're searching for, are the terms in order of popularity from the top down?
Keyword Research | | SSFCU0 -
How to get search volume in Google's keyword planner
I want to know the search volume for ~1000 keywords that I discovered via ubersuggest. Yesterday I could have done this in 5 minutes, but I can't seem to get it to work in the new Google tool and would love some advice. When I either upload or copy and paste my list into the tool I can get it to give me search ideas with volume, but it has all the keywords I am uploading as 0 search volume (when I know that is not true and some of them have thousands of searches). I've tried "entering keywords to see how they perform" and also "searching for keyword ideas" (the second just because the first didn't try after my 10 tries) Any ideas about what I am doing wrong?
Keyword Research | | theLotter
Or is this a bug other people have been experiencing?0 -
How effective the use of preposition in title tag?
I would like to know the value of preposition on title tag and the impact on search engine queries. As for example, I would like to know the difference between TOURS TO NEPAL and TOURS NEPAL keyword, how they had a impact on search engine queries.
Keyword Research | | SuMoksha0 -
Is there a way to search 400+ urls for a specific keyword?
I have a large list of URL's that need to be checked for a specific keyword. I've been doing them one at a time and it's painful. Is there a web based tool out there that can search many different URL's at once?
Keyword Research | | billnet0
