WEST PALM BEACH, FL – Web page titles may begin to appear differently in search results on Google as they have altered its system for generating titles for search listings. On Tuesday, August 24, 2021, Google said it had made the change, a week ago.
Old Titles:
New Titles:
Google said it will still use HTML title tags as the principal way of generating titles more than 80% of the time. However, they won’t do it if they determine there is a better more accurate title for users. Google will now use the text that humans are able to visually see when they land on a web page. So, if your HEADER “H” TAGS are too long, the system may pick up another header that better conveys the intent of the page.
About The Author: John Colascione is Chief Executive Officer of Internet Marketing Services Inc. He specializes in Website Monetization, is a Google AdWords Certified Professional, authored a ‘how to’ book called ”Mastering Your Website‘, and is a key player in several Internet related businesses through his search engine strategy brand Searchen Networks®
john andrews says
Thanks for the report.
Google has been rewriting page titles for years, using a variety of approaches, generally based on title tags and title elements, especially when those page components are long, include conjunctions and other “stop” words, or are not as “local” as Google believed the page content to represent.
One has to wonder how far Google will go with pretending that identified web sites published things they didn’t actually publish, before there’s push-back or legal consequences. In some ways, this is no different than erroneously paraphrasing someone using quotes — could be libelous, in some contexts.