Title tags missing

[USHoleInOne]

I have noticed that some of my title tags have been altered (by Google?) on the SERP.

I am only showing the keywords on some listings, not the full title tags that I wrote, this is happening to our competitors as well.

Any idea what is going on, one of my clients is looking for answers!

Thanks

[Alex-Harford]

Are the titles relevant to the page content? Are they well over 70 characters (or really short in some cases)? It is possible Google has changed the title display on the SERPs if any of those things apply. They sometimes use a H tag, ODP listing, anchor text from links or some content within the page...if they're only showing the keywords in your case I'd guess the titles might be too long.

If it's only started to happen recently perhaps they're doing some testing...

Here's a useful link: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35624 - Google also say they might change the title tag if the same title is used multiple times across a site - something I missed! There's also some info on preventing the use of ODP data in tags.

[USHoleInOne]

Thanks for the link, I guess I was wondering if its normal to happen during any testing or caching. Everything is technically fine and SEO'ed properly.

[reallygoodstuff]

That's interesting, because they are also changing Adwords headlines.  See attached image, the #1 and #3 ads are not the creative supplied to Google.

When Google does this on the ad side, they are optimizing for clicks. I think these moves are about condensing the size of the presentation of a SERP, whether that's to accommodate the micro-attention span of users, or to accommodate the increasing use of small form-factor devices (iphone, ipad, netbook) is unknown to me. But, I bet it tests at a higher CTR.

jmRdq

[KeriMorgret]

Also check out these posts from Search Engine Roundtable. There have been reports from the past few months about Google not listening to what you write for your title tag.

http://www.seroundtable.com/google-title-tag-13704.html

http://www.seroundtable.com/google-title-selection-12989.html