For certain search queries, Google is now reserving the right to change your Title Tag at their discretion. Or at least how the Title Tag of your web page appears in their search results. Google is not saying how and when they decide to change your search engine listing like this, but their intention is to provide more relevant search results for their users.
Matt Cutts from Google explains this in a recent video:
When your web site is listed in the Google search engine, the Title Tag is the first part of the search result. Information from your Meta Description Tag is then typically shown, and then your actual URL.
Depending on what a user searches for in Google, the search engine will display search results including that search query, and will even bold the phrase in some of the search listings. In the past, Google has taken bold steps such as changing a web page’s search listing title from DMOZ.org, the Open Directory Project. There currently is a way to opt out of the DMOZ title tag on your search listing, by specifying the “No ODP” tag on your web page. However, in this latest bold move by Google, they have made the decision to begin changing the titles of search listings and deciding–on their own via their automated algorithm–how your web site’s listing should appear in their search results.
Let’s look at an example of what Google might do to your search engine listing. Here is what an “old” search engine listing might look like (keep in mind that this is just an example, Google has not changed this title tag):
Dallas Hotels | Luxury Dallas Hotel - Omni Dallas Hotel at Park West
The elegant Omni Dallas Hotel at Park West puts you close to the best attractions of dynamic Dallas, Texas. Located near the vibrant Las Colinas Business ...
www.omnihotels.com/FindAHotel/DallasParkWest.aspx - Cached - Similar
In the case above, Google is pulling the title tag exactly how it appears on the web page. And then Google displays part of the meta description tag, as well as the URL.
With this new change to Google’s Title Tag policy, Google might decide–at their discretion–to change your search listing to:
Dallas Hotels - Omni Dallas Hotel at Park West
The elegant Omni Dallas Hotel at Park West puts you close to the best attractions of dynamic Dallas, Texas. Located near the vibrant Las Colinas Business ...
www.omnihotels.com/FindAHotel/DallasParkWest.aspx - Cached - Similar
In this case, Google has changed the title tag to the keyword phrase (Dallas Hotels) along with a hyphen, and then the business name. Google has removed the “pipe” symbol and replaced it with a hyphen. But, more importantly, they have removed the words “Luxury Dallas Hotel” in the search result for this Dallas hotel. In the search results, this particular hotel has included the word “luxury” in their title tag. That could be an important distinction for them, as there may not be other luxury hotels displayed in the search results for that particular search query at Google. And, since if that were the case, the type of people that would be coming to the web site would potentially change, the search listing may (or may not) get as many clicks as they did in the past. All because Google has decided to arbitrarily change the title tag algorithmically, using some automated computer program.
As it stands now, there is no way to “opt out” of Google changing your Title Tag on your search engine listing. So, if Google decides to change it at will, then you, as a web site owner, cannot do anything about it. And even if the Omni Hotel in Dallas decides that they want to be known as a Luxury Hotel, Google just changed that. And there is nothing that can be done about it.
Subscribe
