Page title in SERP question

[inhouseninja]

Has anyone typed in a phrase in Google and seen their listing on the SERP, but the page title on the Google SERP  is not what the CMS is set to ?

Ie the page title in the SERP is not what is expected?  Something related to the company, but not what is set on the CMS…

Very odd – has anyone seen something like this before?  What could be causing it?  Is there a way to change it?

[AdamThompson]

Yes, I've seen this more than once. There are two causes I'm aware of:

1. Google hasn't updated its index and is showing an old version of your page.

2. Google is getting the title from elsewhere, such as DMOZ (they can and will do this in some cases).

[itrogers]

Sometimes Google will display the title and meta element of a DMOZ listing. If you are listed in the DMOZ open directory project, simply put the following to your head section and it will default back to what you actually have on the page.

Sometimes, Google will also change the Title and description elements in the SERPs for user experience. It's difficult to see how or why, but it does happen. Does this help?

[itrogers]

Yes- I did not mention this in my other response. Adam is correct also, it could be that Google has an outdated index.

[KeriMorgret]

Barry Schwartz has written about the last part (when it's not a DMOZ listing) at http://www.seroundtable.com/google-title-selection-12989.html. There have also been several comments in Q&A about Google not using either the site's title tag or the DMOZ entry for the title in the SERP.