Google made some changes to the way they write titles in August 2021. It can be confusing to get your head around why Google rewrites your title tags.
Here are some different ways that Google rewrites your title tags:
Simple Truncation
Quite simply, Google can only fit a certain amount of characters on one line. The character limit changes but if a <title> tag is too long it will be cut off without considering the quality of the title.
Complex Truncation
This involves Google shortening a title by appending it with ‘…’.
Rewrite Truncation
Following the update, it appears that Google is truncating long titles without using ‘…’. It appears to extract text instead from other elements of the page with varying success.
Keyword Stuffing
Google doesn’t like overly long titles that are filled with keywords. It will do a rewrite based on other headings. In extreme cases the rewrite will make the title more successful, but Google also does not like pipes (|) to separate phrases.
It could be said that Google has become a little aggressive towards titles that suit the style and purpose of a page but do not meet its stance towards defined phrases.
Brand Name Added
Google has been adding the brand name to titles for some time. It works well for short brand names, but it does cause a problem when the brand name is longer.
Adding a longer brand name to a title can create too many characters and this will limit the original title causing it to lose its meaning and effectiveness.
Brand Name Moved
Since the Title change update in August, Google appears to sometimes move the brand name to the front of a title with a colon ‘:’. Other times Google moves the brand name from the front to the back.
<Title> is too short
Google may not like long titles, but it also seems that it isn’t fond of ones that it considers to be too short.
It will often add the brand name to the end to make the title longer or sometimes expand the title. You might expect the expansion to include text drawn from the rest of the page, but this isn’t necessarily the case.
Relevance
Whilst it is impossible to ascertain the exact reason for a rewrite, it does seem that many titles are rewritten to make them a better fit for search queries.
Google seems to consider some titles as too generic, and it will often rewrite the title as the brand name. Of course, some titles such as ‘home’ may simply be too short for Google.
Marketing
Since the August update it appears that Google is removing subjective words such as ‘best’ from titles. It is possible that it does not approve of this kind of marketing speak but sometimes removing the word ‘best’ can change the meaning of the title. A title such as ‘what does a best man wear?’ would not make sense without the word ‘best’.
Query-based
In the new August update Google confirmed that they would no longer usually use queries to generate titles. It does appear that the use of query keywords has been reduced since that date.
Can you prevent rewrites?
At the present time you cannot tell Google not to rewrite your <title> tag although many people in the sector will be looking for a way to do this.
If you are seeing significant negative effects, then you can tweak your <title> tags using the following guidelines.
Check the Title Length
You need to be aware of any <title> tags that exceed the limit by using monitoring tools. Having your title truncated by Google is not necessarily a bad thing if the key words remain but a rewrite maylose meaning.
Eliminate Keyword Stuffing
You already know that you shouldn’t spam your titles with keywords, but even good titles need to avoid stringing phrases together with pipes to avoid getting rewritten.
Consider Searcher Intent
It has always been good advice for SEO to consider your potential audience to increase your click rate and engagement.
Now it is important to consider your audience intent in your title to avoid it being rewritten.
