Why is Google changing my title tags?

[NetvantageMarketing]

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?

[journeybeyondtravel]

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

[Trenton-Wiges]

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. | SEOmoz

I believe it has to do with a verified Google+ page/website, all of the instances I've noticed they were verified.

[David_ODonnell]

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.

[AlanBleiweiss]

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.

[b4004040]

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?

[AlanBleiweiss]

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.