Why are my page titles not being honored?

[Sika22]

If you view source you will see my actual title tag http://www.sqlsentry.com/products/performance-advisor/sql-server-performance

The google results are showing a completely different title tag that we do not want used.  This was working properly and I'm not understanding how it got changed.  Thanks!

[mosquitohawk]

Good day!  That can be a really frustrating experience, particularly when you've worked hard to write your titles.  Alan Bleiweiss gave a good answer on here in the past and it's still relevant - http://moz.com/community/q/why-is-google-changing-my-title-tags

[Matt-Williamson]

There is no way to force Google to use your page title when it displays the search results. Google can change your title for different seearch queries if it thinks your url fits but the title doesn't. That being said you can look at optimising your title to below 70 characters and making sure it is as natural as possible. I can see your page title is 77 characters. Google has recently started only displaying a set pixel width after a redesign - you will find this recent article by doctor Pete useful - http://moz.com/blog/new-title-tag-guidelines-preview-tool - so the potential title displayed has been further limited in character length, but you can test it with the tool..Doctor Pete states he is comfortable with a length of 55 characters to be dispalyed fully but remember character length can vary quite a bit..Also remember Google still process data past the cut off!

[anthonydnelson]

I've definitely found that Google seems to take more liberties giving you the title tag of your choosing when your title tag is too long. I also like the pixel width guidelines over the character recommendations. Your title tag is currently 589 pixels wide, vs the recommended 466 maximum.

Fun tool to test it out with: http://www.webshoptimizer.com/page-title-pixel-meter/

Of course, you could change it and create a nice short title tag, and Google may still choose to show something else.