Why Does Google Keep Changing My Page Titles?

[sbrault74]

I know Google has been doing this for quite some time but how do you "control" what Google will display as your page name?

Lots of my pages come up with a title like "[searched keyword] - [website name]" in the search results. I usually a huge drop in CTR when this happens.

On the other hand, there are some pages which have kept their title intact in the search results.

So what gives? How come one page's title is changed and the other is not?

[CMC-SD]

You can't control this, I don't think. Google seems to think Keyword - Website Name is better for searchers.

[sbrault74]

Yeah but it sucks when the result just above yours is something like:

[keyword] Special Discount 50% Off - [Website Name]

[CMC-SD]

Are you ensuring that your title tags come in under 60 characters? They seem to be rewriting the long ones more often.

[sbrault74]

Isn't it 70?

One particular title I'm looking at currently has 68 chars.

[sbrault74]

I shortened the title and see how it goes in a few weeks.

[goodlegaladvice]

If google is just adding website name it could be because of dmoz info research

[Christy-Correll]

The title tags are actually at risk of being truncated (or, in some cases, replaced) when they are too wide now. So a title of around 100 character can in theory show up in the SERPs without being cut off if it uses primarily thin letters. The ideal pixel width, however, is still somewhat of a mystery -- somewhere around 500px.

[Christy-Correll]

There are many reasons why Google may decide to change your title tag in the SERPs besides the length, however. As your example shows, Google likes titles that are keyword rich, concise, and branded. The closer your titles match the search query -- and your page -- the less likely they are to be rewritten. You aren't using boilerplate templates for your titles are you (or auto generated ones)?

Would you mind sharing some examples of titles that have remained intact as well as ones that have been changed by Google?

[CMC-SD]

Sometimes you can get 70 characters to show on the SERP, but sometimes it's less. As far as I know, 60 is still the safest threshold.

[sbrault74]

My website isn't listed on dmoz

[sbrault74]

I changed my page title so it has less than 60 chars: now Google is showing MY page title, not theirs.