Google Title Change: How They Do It and What We Can Learn

Google title change happens. It’s a fact of life in the SERPs. And the way they change title tags is evolving. It’s also happening more than ever before.

This can be frustrating for site owners and businesses that depend on organic search engine traffic. But the way Google rewrites titles also offers insights. It can provide ideas for title tag optimization and improvement to page titles as well as header tags and content.

Google Title Change: How They Do It and What We Can Learn

Recent Google Title Change Updates

In mid August 2021, Danny Sullivan, on behalf of Google, announced that they had made changes to their search engine systems, related to web page title tags. This was all the buzz in SEO circles.

The HTML title tag is one of the most basic elements of any web page, from simple blogs, to a local business site, on up to large, global e-commerce sites. The title of the page is the dominant way a site owner conveys the primary keyword or purpose of the page.

This update, like many, caused quite a stir in the digital marketing and SEO community. And the changes are likely not complete…

However, when Google lists the page in its search results it sometimes changes or rewrites the publisher’s page title. Sometimes they are fixing basic issues or simply shortening the title to fit the SERP. But often there are also insights to be gleaned from how they change the titles.

But in August of 2021 Google announced that it had “introduced a new system of generating titles for web pages.” This update, like many, caused quite a stir in the digital marketing and SEO community. And the changes are likely not complete, as they indicated that additional updates may be coming in the future.

Marketers always hate change (whoever it’s meant for). And the initial roll out of this title change update was especially messy. Examples of Frankenstein titles were all over Twitter in the weeks around the change.

They also claimed that this update “produces titles that are more readable and preferred by searchers”, which is a curious way to put it.

Despite this, Google stated that the “new system is producing titles that work better for documents overall, to describe what they are about, regardless of the particular query.” A title that ‘describes what the document is about’ seems like a pretty low bar, but that’s just me.

They also claimed that this update “produces titles that are more readable and preferred by searchers”, which is a curious way to put it. It sounds like focus-group-speak to me.

I explore why Google changes titles elsewhere. Regardless, title changes can have a major impact and industry heavyweights are taking notice.

Shortly after the update, the enterprise analytics big dogs at STAT (part of Moz) added a dedicated Title Tag Tracking Report to their agency and enterprise offering.

Whatever the future holds, Google title changes continue to have implications at all levels, from the largest companies and agencies down to solo site owners.

Google Title Tag Change Variations

There have, at this point, been a number of excellent and very broad studies on how Google does title tag changes. Naturally, there are differences in methodology and this has led to some different observations. But, even accounting for these, the changes that came with this update are significant.

Google is changing titles far more often than they used to. And there are a variety of ways that titles can be changed…

Multiple studies put the frequency of title rewrites at over 60%. Ahrefs, in its November 2021 report, focused on ‘meaningful and more significant’ changes to the page title tag. By this measure they estimated that Google rewrites title tags over 33% of the time. And they noted that this is 32.8% higher than 6 months earlier (in June of the same year).

So, however you slice the data, Google is changing titles far more often than they used to. And there are a variety of ways that titles can be changed, which are covered in some detail below. Publishers have less control than ever over how their content appears in Google but there is info-gold in those hills.

What matters more than if the title is changed is what changes means in context of the SERP and query.

What Google Search Title Changes Reveal

Many of the studies performed in the past have already revealed some simple, data-backed guidelines. But there are other insights that we can learn from analysis of Google title tag changes.

Depending on the current page ranking, these might inform page title tag changes (or not), but also improvements to H1 and H2 tags, meta descriptions and more.

Title is shortened, or lengthened

If Google is shortening the title in the SERP versus the actual page, this might not mean that the corresponding page title should be shortened. If the page is ranking well as-is, the existing (longer) title contributes to that ranking. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

But if the page title is too short, and Google lengthened the title in the SERP this might be an opportunity to add extra contextual words to the page title. If the page is already in the top 10 then, again, such changes should be made cautiously. But title tags are easy to change and revert. 

Remember, it’s easy and low risk to experiment with page title tag changes, but don’t change the page URL, as this will be treated as a whole new page by Google. 

Reordered titles

If Google is changing the order of the page title words there is a possibility that this rewording is an improvement over the current title. If they continue serving this alternate word order over days or weeks then this only reinforces that the alternate is preferred. 

Again, if the page already ranks in the top 10 then changing the underlying page title may not be advisable. However, then this alternate phrasing could at least be used in an H2, or worked into the description. Then if the click-through rate data proves the strength of the Google alternative wording then additional changes might be in order.

If pages higher up (outranking your page) are having their titles changed, consider these variations as well. There is little risk in experimenting with title tag and H1 tag changes if your page is not yet on page 1. See if the Google ‘version’ of a title improves ranking of the page. 

The Google title change engine has gotten very good at detecting keyword repeats. But it’s not clear that the ranking algos themselves are equally sophisticated…

Removed Repeats

The most common cause of Google removing repeat words in the title tag is when certain keywords are intentionally overused (stuffed) into the title. But, similar to when Google shortens titles, don’t assume that the reworded title must be “better”. 

The Google title change engine has gotten very good at detecting keyword repeats, and making titles more human-friendly. But it’s not clear that the ranking algos themselves are equally sophisticated, and there is lots of evidence to suggest that keyword density and frequency are still a thing. So, the current page title might not be pretty, but it may be effective (at ranking the page). 

Keyword “stuffing” is never advisable but if the page is currently ranking in the top 10 then, as noted above, consider title changes carefully. And, again, if stuck on page 2 of the SERPs, some experimentation may be worth considering.

Brand/Site Name Changes

Based on the numerous, excellent studies in 2021, adding or removing the brand or site name was a very common change. These are fairly innocuous and, in most cases, don’t yield much insight. 

Some research found that there was a slightly higher likelihood of Google adding the site name for smaller and mid-sized businesses, and removing it for large brands. This seems counter-intuitive to me, as smaller companies don’t have the brand equity so they wouldn’t benefit as much from having the site name added.

Regardless, I think the takeaway here is clear. Unless a brand name has strong gravity all of its own, there is probably no need to add our brand/site name in the page title tag. If Google wants it there, it will put it in the SERP.

Title Tag Takeaways

The main takeaway is this: the page title tag contributes heavily to page ranking. It is the single best indicator of which keyword the page is targeting. And Google title tag changes, when they happen, can offer great insights.

If a page is already top ranked, then it is obviously well-tuned for the keyword. However, if a web page is not ranking on page one; consistently in the 20s, 30s or lower, then Google title tag changes may offer critical insights into how your page title tag (and, therefore, your ranking) could be improved. 

These clues and ‘suggestions’ from Google might also drive improvements to the H1 tag or H2s, in addition to the meta description and content. 

The ways Google rewrites title tags, and does everything else in the SERP, will continue to change. But many SERP secrets are hiding in plain sight, if you know how to identify them. 

Keeping up with the evolving challenges in the digital marketing space will always require effort and focus. But having the right tools helps. SERP Sonar identifies data and insights under the surface of the search engine results page. Try it today for free.