In a hangout, one SEO professional was concerned about not matching the page title to the web page itself.
They found that their page titles had been shortened and their company name was added to the search result’s title.
Although they do add their company name at the end of titles sometimes, the concern is that Google adds it to all of their page titles, even when they don’t specify this.
The SEO pro was curious about whether or not it’s better to actually use shortened titles that can be displayed in the search results, or if it’s better to keep the ones they already have and allow Google to choose the page title.
John explained that Google doesn’t have anything specific about that, in terms of what is better on their side. The thing he believes is most worthwhile is that Google uses page titles as a tiny factor in their rankings.
So, you don’t want to make your page titles entirely irrelevant to the content on that page.
You can try different things out.
He also mentioned that it’s not a critical issue if the title they show in search results, which they call title links, isn’t exactly the same as the one you listed.
If the page title doesn’t match what’s on the page, that’s fine. Google also uses what they have on the page, when it comes to search.
From that perspective, the SEO pro can place items like the brand name in their title tag on those pages. Google will eventually show that, and may even make some changes to what they perceive is the best version of that page title.
The page itself, however, is the basis for what Google uses when ranking the page, rather than the title.
This happens at approximately the 15:37 mark in the video.
John Mueller Hangout Transcript
John (15:37)
How does it affect the search rankings when page and search titles don’t match? Often we experience that the page title has been shortened and our company name added to the search results title. We do add our company name to the end sometimes, but the concern is that this is to all our page titles, and we’ll limit how much we can write in the title. So the question is really, is it better to have shortened titles that can be displayed in the search results? Or is it better to keep the page titles we have already and let Google choose a different title?
John (16:14)
I don’t think there is anything explicit about what is better from our side. One of the things I think is worthwhile to keep in mind is we do use titles as a tiny factor in our rankings as well. So it’s something where I wouldn’t necessarily make titles on your pages that are totally irrelevant. But you can, you can try different things out, kind of like I mentioned before.
And it’s not, it’s not a critical issue, if the title that we show in the search results, we call these title links nowadays, if that doesn’t match what is on your page. From our point of view, that’s perfectly fine. And we use what you have on your page when it comes to search. So from that point of view, it’s like you can put the things in your title tag on your pages. And maybe we’ll show that maybe we’ll tweak that a little bit. But essentially, your page is what we use as a basis for the rankings.
And with regards to the company name or not, I think that’s a little bit up to you and a little bit also in our algorithms as well. And that we do see that users like to have an understanding of the bigger picture of where does this page fit. And sometimes the company name or brand name for the website makes sense to show there. Some people choose to put it in the beginning or in the end. Some people have different kinds of separators that they use.
From my point of view, I think that’s more a matter of personal taste and decoration rather than anything related to how ranking would work.
