{"id":4778,"date":"2021-09-23T15:47:30","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T13:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/?p=4778"},"modified":"2025-04-09T08:34:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T08:34:29","slug":"googles-title-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seobility.net\/en\/blog\/google-title-update-everything-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Title Update: Everything You Need To Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past few weeks, one topic has clearly dominated the SEO community: Google\u2019s recent title update. Since mid-August, Google has been rewriting page titles of search results much more often<\/strong>, which leads to title tags (also called meta titles<\/a>) being displayed less frequently in SERPs.<\/p>\n

After the change has been strongly criticized by some SEOs, Google finally followed up with a second update last Friday, along with a new blog post that contains more information about its new system for generating page titles.<\/p>\n

Keep reading to learn how the new system works, in which cases Google is rewriting your title tags, and how you can make sure your website\u2019s SERP snippets still attract as many visitors as possible!<\/p>\n

Content<\/div>
  • How did Google generate page titles in the past?<\/a><\/li>
  • What changed in August?<\/a><\/li>
  • Example<\/a><\/li>
  • What are other reasons for rewriting page titles?<\/a><\/li>
  • Reactions of the SEO community<\/a><\/li>
  • Another title update on September 17<\/a><\/li>
  • What should you do now?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n

    How did Google generate page titles in the past?<\/h2>\n

    To understand the scope of the current changes, we first need to take a look at how Google used to generate page titles for search results in the past.<\/p>\n

    In most cases, Google just used the title tag of a web page<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \"title<\/p>\n

    \"Snippet<\/p>\n

    But as this tag might not provide the best possible title for each potential search query, Google started generating alternative titles in 2012 to provide more relevant results for individual searches.<\/p>\n

    In addition, Google adjusted page titles or replaced them with other content on a page (e.g. headings) if\u2026<\/p>\n

      \n
    • \u2026 the title tag was missing or empty<\/li>\n
    • \u2026 the title tag contained generic content (e.g. \u201chome page\u201d)<\/li>\n
    • \u2026 the same title was used for multiple pages<\/li>\n
    • \u2026 the title was unnecessarily long or hard to read<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      But besides truncating title tags that are too long, Google rarely changed page titles. In most cases, you could expect your title tag to be displayed in search results as long as it was complete and unique.<\/p>\n

      What changed in August?<\/h2>\n

      From mid-August, many SEOs, including Brodie Clark<\/a>, started to notice that Google was changing many more page titles in the search results. And in many cases, it wasn\u2019t clear where the new title came from.<\/p>\n

      \n

      When trying to figure out the source of your websites title in Google's SERPs: https:\/\/t.co\/hl3cS3dc5U<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/SYs6iVCd1R<\/a><\/p>\n

      — Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) August 19, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n