How? Title in Google differs than actual title tag
-
Just curious on how sites do this? If you search for a video (perhaps Green Lantern Trailer), you'll see the YouTube results in Google/Bing listed as
YouTube - Green Lantern Trailer
but when you go to the page, the actual title tag displayed is
Green Lantern Trailer - YouTube
I've seen other sites do this too. I'm just curious what they are doing (I don't see any other title tags in the html)? I thought your title tag is what is displayed in SERP?
Thanks,
-
Perhaps its some SEO testing.
"Let's create a new page, use a robot txt file to block the bot, and then spam a 100k new links to page."
"That's crazy enough that it just might work."
-
well if you get dumped by Twitter then pick up on JCPenny!
It's pretty amazing that this page is ranking at all.
-
I am with you on that one.
-
Search for "dresses" and check title tags for JCP and cache.com (both on page 2).
-
Wow! That is rather nice of them. Where do I sign up for that program?
-
I believe that Google is matching the query.
-
Thomas, I checked the page with OSE and saw no links at all. It's possible Google sees links not captured by OSE but that means they are newer or weaker links. It seems unlikely but possible. Even so, very odd they would change a page's title in SERPs based on the anchor text of weak links.
-
Per James Zolman... "when it's robots txt'd out: http://jcp.is/ppWTXU - G assume title via external link anchor txt imo".
-
That is especially interesting considering the term "lamps" by itself is never used once on the page. "Table Lamps" is used frequently but they somehow managed to isolate "lamps" by itself and use it.
I checked OSE just in case there were many links using "lamps" as anchor text but no links are visible for the page.
I really question how that was done and in this circumstance, why it was done.
-
Google is changing lots of title tags these days - to titles that they feel will better please the searcher.
For example... go to google.com and search for "lamps"..... check what is displayed for JC Penny... then go into the site and see their actual title tag is entirely different.
-
I cannot duplicate your result. All the youtube results in Google SERP for "YouTube - Green Lantern Trailer" appear as Green Lantern Trailer - YouTube. When I visit the page, the title is the same.
Can you offer an exact keyword search along with the result page where the title does not match SERPs?
-
Seeing as youtube is a google property they can do what they want
additionally, google has been known to change title tags in their SERPs from time to time and lately they've been doing it more. here is some more information directly from google -
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=679eb9f272a5a3bf&hl=en
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
-
Titles and User Intent
Hi all, Just a question re: Titles. Does adding terms like "buy online" to the title for ecommerce websites change the way Google ranks you? For example: Blue Flowers | Flower Palace Buy Blue Flowers Online | Flower Palace Would the second title appear higher for people in the buying phase of the sales funnel, and lower for people in the research phase of the buying funnel? Or will it not matter?
On-Page Optimization | | Onlineorders0 -
Duplicate Titles - Recruitment Agency
Hi All, I was just wondering if anyone had come across this problem before - We are a recruitment agency so we have multiple of the same jobs at the same time, so we're looking into ways to differentiate and change it but we've got the same Duplicate Titles - has anyone faced this problem before? And if so what did they do? Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | marketingmc0 -
Fetch as Google
Are there any pros or cons with using Google fetch and submit? I realise Google will likely find it of its own accord in due course but I have found it may take a couple of weeks if at all. Fetch and submit seems to speed this process up, sometimes anyway.
On-Page Optimization | | seoman100 -
Getting different search queries in Google Webmaster
Hi All, I have a website Afrofood.com. In it's Google webmaster search queries i have more than 90 Queries, but not a single query is related with this site. All queries are from different site or subject, they have no any relation with my site. Can any one please tell me how to correct this... Site is Afrofood.com related with African foods, recipes, spices and all that. But showing search queries are: [canada goose](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/top-search-queries?hl=en&siteUrl=http://afrofood.com/&authuser=1#canada goose) [canada goose outlet deutschland](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/top-search-queries?hl=en&siteUrl=http://afrofood.com/&authuser=1#canada goose outlet deutschland) [polizei shop düsseldorf](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/top-search-queries?hl=en&siteUrl=http://afrofood.com/&authuser=1#polizei shop düsseldorf) [canada goose deutschland](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/top-search-queries?hl=en&siteUrl=http://afrofood.com/&authuser=1#canada goose deutschland) [canada goose weste](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/top-search-queries?hl=en&siteUrl=http://afrofood.com/&authuser=1#canada goose weste) [canada goose kaufen](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/top-search-queries?hl=en&siteUrl=http://afrofood.com/&authuser=1#canada goose kaufen) [canada goose hamburg](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/top-search-queries?hl=en&siteUrl=http://afrofood.com/&authuser=1#canada goose hamburg) [canada goose größentabelle](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/top-search-queries?hl=en&siteUrl=http://afrofood.com/&authuser=1#canada goose größentabelle)
On-Page Optimization | | 1akal0 -
Is it OK to include name of your town to the title tag or H1 tag on a blog to enhance local search results
I recently attended a webinar by ETNA Interactive on local search SEO. The presenter recommended including the name of your town in the title of the blog to increase local search SEO. Is this OK? Ive always been concerned that it is such an obvious attempt to rank locally that Google would consider it "spammy" ? black hat, "sketchy" or otherwise manipulative. Have the rules changed? Is it OK to do? Brooke
On-Page Optimization | | wianno1680 -
Will changing the title tags cause me to lose rankings?
I have a site that gets pretty decent rankings. Based on Seomoz's assessment of my site I have ALOT of title tags that are too long. If I make modifications to my title tags will that hurt my rankings? I am also thinking of removing my company name from the title tag as that is taking up too much space.
On-Page Optimization | | webestate1 -
Potential Duplicate Title Tags On Sibling Pages
Edit I'll take the fall on this one, seems I could have asked my quesiton in a more clear manner. I was cruising other questions and finding a whole of answers that I suspect were not truly intended to help, but maybe help and earn Mozpoints. Wasn't fair of me to label those answering here with that. I will work better on the wording of my questions! 🙂 Edit Either I am asking my question poorly or I am learning there may be a rush to get points by throwing up any old answer...it very well may be the former which I am open to feedback on. Each page is to stand alone and hopefully rank well for the neighbourhood name and in conjunction with another relevant keyword phrase. There is no 'duplicate' version of any pages. * On a site there are numerous pages that provide real estate listings broken down by neighbourhood. Each containing similar content, a abbreviated version of the listings, often spanning 2 or 3 pages. These are 3rd level pages. Properties->Calgary Neighbourhoods->Evanston The title tags created are: Evanston Homes For Sale - NW Calgary Real Estate Panorama Hills Home For Sale - NW Calgary Real Estate Etc. for about 15 or so pages. Then they start again for another area of the city: Sagewood Homes For Sale - Airdrie Real Estate Woodside Homes For Sale - Airdrie Real Estate At this point there is no text on the actual page outside of the listings...an example of similar listings on another site - http://www.experiencerealtygroup.com/BaturynandDunluceHomes.ubr Do you think the SE's will see these as 'proper' use of the Title Tag or duplicate or other practices they tend to frown upon? It is a logical way of creating the title and obviously creating a unique version for each page would not only be tough to scale on some sites with 100's of these pages, they would become a little silly and not much use to the searcher in the SERPs Thanks for any help!
On-Page Optimization | | kyegrace1 -
Opinions on Alt tags
Reading around the web, there are many sources that suggest all images should have an Alt tag attributed to them. This is good for accessibility etc, however there appears to be conflicting interests between this and what works for SEO. Hence many other sources suggest that you include a keyphrase or two in 1 image Alt tag, and then leave the rest blank so as not to dilute the alts on the page. In my experience, the latter appears to be true. However this seems wrong when the Alt attribute really should be used for accessibility reasons and not for SEO - why would the search engines encourage us to provide poorer quality information by harming our rankings if we try to make a website accessible? Interested to hear your opinions and experiences on this subject. Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | RiceMedia0