Google is not taking the title I set

[Keszi]

Google is known for the fact that likes to rewrite titles and meta descriptions, if they believe it fits more to the user.

There are a few articles which you could read:

• from Yoast: https://yoast.com/google-page-title/ <- he is writing about this issue itself
• from Moz: http://moz.com/learn/seo/title-tag

I hope it will help.

Gr., Keszi

[RangeMarketing]

Keszi is correct.

This happens frequently with WordPress and having brand names in the title tag. Google will often push a brand name (or whatever it believes is the brand name) to the beginning of the title tag.

[highwayfive]

What search are you performing to see if the title tag has been picked up? As mentioned above Google can decide to overwrite the title and meta descriptions if it sees fit to do so.

Have tried to do a search using the full phrase in the title tag? Have you requested that the site is indexed again via webmasters?

[Carla_Dawson]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your input. I am aware of Google rewriting title tags but what is really weird is that it is taking the title tag that was defined at website launch not something it (Google) defined by itself. It will not take a new title tag suggestion. It is really strange. Any possible theories on why this is happening?

Thanks

Carla

[MonicaOConnor]

Is it possible that the title tag just hasn't been updated in a crawl? Has the page been cached recently, specifically after you changed the title? I would give it a little time.

[Keszi]

I was thinking the same also. But then I have seen the line in Carla's question: "The funny thing is that Google is picking up the correct Meta Description." (and I thought those have been changed at the same time).

[Carla_Dawson]

Hi Monica,

I thought the same thing originally but Google did pick up the new Meta and the title was changed 6 months ago. It is really odd.

[Carla_Dawson]

Hi Keszi,

I did change the meta and title at the same time so technically Google should have picked up the new title and it did not. I am tempted to change the title radically to see if Google sees the change. What do you think?

[Keszi]

I'd test it with one page, then fetch it from Google webmasters tools.

If the test works, then it could be applied to all of the problematic pages.

[Carla_Dawson]

Great idea Keszi but here is the really weird thing. Google is taking all the titles I set for all the internal pages but the only page that is off is the homepage. I keep thinking there is something wrong in the code but I review it and it looks fine.

[Keszi]

I personally do not see anything wrong with the code.

Maybe you should try that test, change it drastically then go and fetch it from Google Webmasters Tools. Let's see what happens.

[MonicaOConnor]

I wonder if the title for your home page is in a different spot. I worked in a site in Volusion once that had a default meta title that would override what I entered on the home page. I am not sure what your platform is, or if you have an accessible template, but that is the only other thing I could think of that could cause this problem.

This seems elementary, but if you can't find a "default" meta title, I would just change the title again and see if it picks up in the next few days.

[Carla_Dawson]

Thanks Everyone for helping me out on this one. I will be drastically changing the title and then fetching it from Google to see what happens. I will let you know the outcome.

[loganjehall]

Hi Carla,

How did the change go? I am having similar issues with one of our partners as it keeps on putting the brand name before the description.

It is also not picking up a the new meta description.

Rather frustrating for sure.

L