SERPs Showing H1s Instead of Title Tags?
-
Hi,
I'm noticing two strange things in search results recently. Often I find that if I search for a client's company name, I see just the company name in SERPs where the title tag would normally be displayed. Examples:
'aci northwest'
'lanz heating'
As strange as that is, I'm tempted to assume this is just Google's way of "getting smarter" and showing more relevant results (though I'm not sure exactly where it's pulling from).
But it gets stranger. For the first example, 'aci northwest', when search that key phrase on Bing/Yahoo!, etc. I'm not only not seeing the title tag where it would normally be, but I'm seeing the H1 in it's place:
"When your projects demand more, demand ACI."
Any idea what's happening here?
Thanks in advance!
-
Here is a theory... because I am not really that involve with those 2, if I remember properly Bing/Yahoo are using the same search technology, so results shouldn't be that different, and my guess is they try to do the same as Google, showing what seems more relevant, but they are not as advanced yet so the probably add more weight to the H1 in the case of your website.
As I said, its just my theory, I am not so into those 2.
Happy to help!
-
Cool, thanks for the quick reply Andrés. So it sounds like my assumption on that part was essentially right.
Any idea about the second part - H1s showing up in place of title tag on other engines?
Thanks again!
-
Hi, quoting you: "I'm tempted to assume this is just Google's way of "getting smarter" and showing more relevant results" , yes you are right, Google actually shows what its more relevant, I know there is a more recent video about this, but this will give you a good explanation on the subject (Matt Cutts) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlJiLDn9-38
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
-
Title tag length
Hi, I am fairly new to SEO and have just noticed the end of my title text has been cut off by Google in the serps results. Everything i have read tells me titles should be maximum of 70 characters, however, Google is only displaying 54. See below Security systems | wireless | battery powered | Police... Nobody else on the page is showing more than 54 characters. Am i missing something obvious? Any and all help gratefully appreciated. Thanks Si
On-Page Optimization | | DaddySmurf0 -
Hey guys! I was looking at adding the H1 tag lower on the page than the H2 tag because I want the top bit to be a call to action. Is this proper practice?
Hey guys! I was looking at adding the H1 tag lower on the page than the H2 tag because I want the top bit to be a call to action. Is this proper practice?
On-Page Optimization | | Web3Marketing870 -
tagged as duplicate content?
Hello folks, I'm new to SEOmoz . I was looking at our Crawl Diagnostics and found that some of our blog posts that have been commented on were tagged as duplicate content. For example: http://thankyouregistry.com/blog/remarriages-and-gift-registries/ http://thankyouregistry.com/blog/remarriages-and-gift-registries/comment-page-1/ I'm unsure how to fix these, so any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks a lot!
On-Page Optimization | | GiftReg0 -
Website title question
Say you have a website url of a rather competitive keyword phrase, would it be beneficial for me to go ahead and name my site title the same as the url? And also should my site title go through every page, or should i consider having slight variations throughout the pages? for example: page title | site title or page title| slight varation of title on sub page? **edit - to further expand on the question a bit also, if my google places has the company name on _there - would it be effective to go ahead and use the company name in my site title? _ _Also if i have the main keyword in the breadcrumb as the home, does that effect my SEO credibility if it shows up on all the pages? _
On-Page Optimization | | tgr0ss0 -
Why is on-page optimisation not showing all my keywords
Why is on-page optimisation not showing all my keywords, it is reporting on only about 10 of the 40
On-Page Optimization | | yours2share0 -
Dynamic title
Hey folks! Newbie here, tried searching for it, but couldn't find a definite answer. I run a large video sharing site and recently started battling the duplicate title and meta description tags issues GWT reported. Here's an example: 2 different members upload a video described as "My BMW". Since the site is running on templates, both videos have the same meta title and meta description. Everything one the page is different, except the meta title and description. The only way I can make it unique is to insert the current VIEWS count in the meta title and description and they would look like this: Video 1 meta title/desc - My BMW video in Cars category | X views Video 2 meta title/desc - My BMW video in Cars category | Y views The problem is that the value of X and Y is changing all the time! Does this matter? Sincerely, H.Marinov
On-Page Optimization | | mlqsko0 -
Is it better to include the secondary keyword or site name in a title tag?
When I add a site name to my title tag with long-tailed primary and secondary keywords the title tag is longer than 70 characters. I need to include all three parts, so what should I do? At 70 characters the site name is usually partially cut off. I do not want to get penalized by Google, but I need to include the site name to have consistency. I am using the format Primary Keyword-Secondary Keyword | Site name
On-Page Optimization | | lwilkins0 -
Page title in SERP question
Has anyone typed in a phrase in Google and seen their listing on the SERP, but the page title on the Google SERP is not what the CMS is set to ? Ie the page title in the SERP is not what is expected? Something related to the company, but not what is set on the CMS… Very odd – has anyone seen something like this before? What could be causing it? Is there a way to change it?
On-Page Optimization | | inhouseninja0