Title in google organic display

[bhsiao]

The title (top link) in my organic result in google search has my page title then a dash and another keyword. This keyword is not related to the search result. It may discourage clicks. Where does google get that and how can i change it?

For example:

Page Title - unrelated keyword
url
link description

[kimmiedawn]

That's your page's title tag. If you view the page's source code (click Ctrl U) you will see <title>Page Title</span><span class="webkit-html-tag"></title>. You just need to change that in the html of the page.

If your site is Wordpress (which often uses the dash automatically as separator) go to your Settings, then General, then Site Title and see if you see Unrelated Keyword there.

[jbbattag]

Also, if you are using wordpress please check out the Yoast SEO plugin, there you will find very easy and straight forward ways to edit your title tag and create relevant snippets for google.

[bhsiao]

The unrelated keyword after the dash is not in my title tag. I am not using Wordpress. It is an html website.

[KevinBudzynski]

Sometimes Google will change the text on where the title tag usually appears if they think they can do a better job. For more information, please see this post.

[DennisSeymour]

Kevin is spot on. Google can change your title tags.

Try changing your existing one to a better one, improve the length and the relevance of the content. Plus the signals pointing to that page so they would stop changing automatically

[JaneCopland]

Hi there,

Dennis and Kevin are correct - Google sometimes displays what it thinks might be "better", even if you disagree. If possible, can you show us the example? Feel free to PM it to me if you would rather. If you'd rather keep it private, I still definitely agree with trying to change the tag in various ways, perhaps improving its descriptiveness, to see if the page displayed in the SERP changes as well.

I hope this helps.

Jane

[bhsiao]

Thank you Jane. I am unable to PM you. Your name doesn't show up in the drop down list. What is the username I should use?

[JaneCopland]

Hi there,

That's odd! I've found you on there so I'll PM you instead. Cheers!