What to do when Google Replaces the Page Title Automatically?

Do you wonder whether Google Replaces the Page Title Automatically or not? This article will be the answer of your question. It is no secret that Google goes the extra mile to offer the most relevant and informative sources, even if that means changing some stuff on your content.

Many people are familiar with the concept of Google changing meta titles or writing one itself when it is not optimal for the content.

With the new update, Google announced that it could change your titles too.

You did not hear it wrong. Google has the authority to change what you named your title. This can be devastating news for some because the title is your only chance to make the first impression you would want to make.

You would not give this opportunity to Google’s hands. Even though Google changing your title is not a completely bad thing, still you would want the one you wrote, wouldn’t you?

Today in this post, we will talk about why Google replaces the title page, how to decrease the chances of Google changing your title, how your title influences your overall success, and the possible flaws that made Google replace it.

Without further ado, let’s get started!

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Google Replaces the Page Title Automatically: Why does Google change title tags?

The first question that comes to mind regarding Google’s automatic title replacement algorithm is “why?”

Why would Google want to change my title tags? Am I hurting anyone? Is it offending somebody?

It is not that Google changes title tags randomly, but there is a reason behind it. And it is a straightforward reason. Google changes title tags either because it is irrelevant or not optimal.

Statistics show that most of the changed title tags are the ones that are too long to take place on the search engine results page. Google just crops them out to have this short and nice title tag that directly gives the necessary point.

We must mention that the statistic mentioned above belongs to the titles that were partially changed. When it comes to fully changes title tags, Google aims to those who are short enough to be fully represented in SERPs.

This means the answer to the question of “why Google changes my title tags?” can be because it is too long.

If your title was not too long, there has to be something else.

Representativeness and Informativeness

The main reason why title tags are completely changed is that there is a mismatch between the content and the title. In other words, your title not being representative of your content or misrepresenting it can be a reason for Google to change it.

Google defines the goal of titles as “representing and explaining the user’s query.” So, anything irrelevant from the search query (and your content) will not be welcomed by Google, whether if your goal was to create a unique title or clickbait (which is a deadly sin in search engine optimization).

While Google is changing the title tag, it just tries to make it relevant to the search query and the content.

Google would never want to disappoint a single user: a person clicking to content with a promise to find what they were looking for and not finding it would be a disaster for Google. So, it does everything to decrease the chances of this happening.

Keyword Stuffing

Moreover, Google changes title tags to avoid “keyword stuffing.” At first glance, it might sound pretty plausible to use as many keywords as you can to maximize the chances of a search query to result in your webpage showing, but it is most definitely not.

Google hates keyword stuffing, and it announced that title replacement is a way of preventing this. You need to use the keywords in a plausible and meaningful way. Stuffing all the keywords in your title tag is a wrong move, and Google will handle it by changing your title tag.

Optimizing

Another thing to note here is that Google not only changes titles when it is irrelevant, but it changes it whenever it thinks it can be better. So, even though your title tag is perfectly optimized, Google still can want to change it for something better.

Even though title replacement seems something you cannot avoid and just need to learn how to live with, it is not. In the following headings, we will discuss what you can do about this algorithm.

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Trite Language

Using trite language in your title tag will not help visitors to understand what your content is about.

Imagine this scenario: you have a website that sells a specific product. As people insert a search query for your product, your main website page shows up in the search engine results page.

But the page is named “the main page.” What can people infer from it? Will they understand it is a website or a page that sells what they need?

In such a case, Google will take control over and create a title tag that seems “more convenient” for it.

Moreover, different pages of your website might all have the same name, which happens to be your website’s name. Each webpage in a given website must have its own unique title to prevent title tag replacement.

What does an irrelevant title tag do to your content in the long run?

Besides Google’s replacement algorithm, there are several things that need to be addressed regarding title tags.

As you can see, Google values title tags a lot. And this value is not all about just changing it to be matching with the content.

Firstly, your content and title being irrelevant would increase your bounce rate. If your title is not giving what was promised, people will leave your webpage as soon as they notice it.

In the long run, of course, Google will understand this and rank you lower on search engine results. You are not the answer for what people are looking for, but only your title is, so why bother to rank you high and waste people’s time?

If you own a website to promote a brand or what you do, irrelevant title tags will decrease the overall brand image you have.

By choosing irrelevant title tags, you are signaling people that your content is not what you promise in the title. In the long run, there is a chance that people will identify your website and avoid clicking on it even though you used a relevant title this time.

Another harm you can get from using irrelevant title tags takes us back to Google’s automatic title replacement.

It is safe to say that Google will not put a well-written and unique title tag. Obviously, an employee in Google will not read your content and decide on a title tag for you. Google’s algorithm will give you a more relevant title tag.

Preventing Title Change

Up to now, you should have understood that title change is not a good thing. You know what your page is about the best, and you should be in control of how people will perceive it in the first impression.

As we mentioned earlier, Google’s version is not a good one in most cases. Even though Google does it to make it better, many websites and webpage owners report that the changed version is not optimal at all.

So, what can you do to prevent title change? The only thing to do is to optimize it as much as possible to not leave any loopholes for Google.

We must once mention that no matter how optimized your title is, Google can still change it for the sake of “making it better.” There is no foolproof way of optimizing your title. But it never hurts to decrease the chances!

The following are some tips on how to optimize your title in a way that can help to decrease the chances of it being changed.

Use Descriptive and Relevant Titles

If you want your titles to remain unchanged, you should focus on the reasons why it is changing, and prevent them.

As we mentioned earlier, one of the main reasons why Google changes titles is because they are irrelevant and not descriptive.

To avoid this, there is just one thing to do, which is writing a title that would directly specify what the content is about and making it as relative as possible.

After you make sure that your title is describing your content nicely and smoothly, there is one more thing you need to consider: writing unique titles.

Writing unique titles does not mean that your title has to be one-of-a-kind, and there should not be another title that is the same as yours; it is quite impossible given the tremendous amount of sources on the internet.

It is great if you can write unique titles while still sticking to being informative. However, what is meant by being unique is about your other web pages on a given website.

Some website owners prefer to have one perfectly optimized title tag and use it in every single webpage they have. Spoiler alert, it will not work.

Doing this will only create a poor image of your website to the visitors and will signal Google that you can use some change on your titles (which is something you do not want to happen).

So, you would want to make sure that you are using unique and descriptive titles for every webpage you have in hand.

Be Careful About the Word Limit

Google can and will shorten your title if it is too long to fit into the search engine results page. While it is shortening it, no one can guarantee that the new version would be something you will like.

Luckily, the prevention of it is quite simple: creating titles that are short enough to be fully seen in the SERPs. Just do not make them too long; keep them short and descriptive.

Of course, keeping them short does not mean you have one or two words to explain what you have to explain. The recommended title tag length is around 50 to 60 characters. You should keep in mind that there is no limit when it comes to title characters, but there is a limit to what will be visible in the SERPs.

Another option to see if your title will be short enough is to copy a title on SERPs and see how many characters it has. You might want to choose a relatively long one (but one that is still fully shown in SERPs) and check its characters.

Additionally, there are many tools you can use to check the length of your title. No matter what, it would be best to check your title in SERPs after posting it to see if it fulfills your needs.

See for more: Content Marketing Metrics

After you review it on SERPs, you can decide whether if it is optimal, too short, or too long.

Avoid Keyword Stuffing

The worst thing about keywords is there can be just too many of them. When it is the case, the worst thing you can do is to try to use all of them at once.

Of course, your content can be about many different keywords. But this does not mean that you have to use all of them in your title. Your title should be relevant to your content and the search intent.

It will look bad and decrease the credibility of your webpage. In fact, Google itself announced that keyword stuffing is a bad idea, and such titles have a higher chance of being changed. So why would you want to do that while the signals are so clear about it?

See for more: Keyword Tracking Tool for your Website

Define your target keyword and search intent, then create a unique and descriptive title.

Avoid Clickbait

Up to now, you should have understood how bad clickbait is. However, it would not hurt to highlight it once more.

Do. Not. Use. Clickbait. Ever.

Clickbait takes us to our very first point: relevance and descriptiveness. The definition of clickbait is far away from being relevant and descriptiveness, so there are no ways of thinking clickbait can be good for your content.

Can you imagine how the bounce rates will be once you decide to use clickbait? Of course, you can write incredibly appealing titles with clickbait; the possibilities are endless. And, of course, you can attract people to click on your content.

But what will happen next?

Here is what will happen next: people will leave your website or webpage immediately they recognize your website is not what you promised.

What will this result with?

An incredibly high bounce rate. (For the record: you would NOT want a high bounce rate).

Consider yourself lucky if Google just changes your title and does not send you to the very end of the SERPs. We are assuming you got the point, just do not use clickbait!

Optimize Every Web page Title on your Website

One great way of showing Google you are doing a good job regarding titles is to have optimized and unique titles for every page.

We mentioned why using the same optimized title for every page is a bad idea. So, you would want to use a customized SEO title for every page you have.

If you just feel lazy and do not write a customized SEO title for every page, here is what will happen: automatically, your H1 heading will be replaced as an SEO title. Would you want your homepage to be titled as “home” as your SEO title? We discussed it earlier; you would not want this.

Be Specific

Being descriptive regarding your title can go further from that. As we mentioned earlier, even though your title is well optimized, Google can still have an attempt to make it better.

You would want to take the extra mile yourself and be more specific to not let this happen.

For example, your content can be about SEO trends. You will not be lying if you have a title that says “SEO trends” (which is a bad title, by the way). Even though this title is descriptive at a certain point, it can be better.

You might want to choose a more specific title that would give as many details as possible within the character limit. For example, a title such as “Latest SEO Trends of 2021” or “Best SEO Trends for Better CTR” would be a lot better.

The more you are specific, the less Google will find a loophole to change it.

What is this change ()tells us about the future of SEO?

As you may already know, SEO is a very dynamic field that changes constantly. For that reason, it is pretty challenging to say what will happen next.

This new algorithm change might go away soon, stick with us forever, or have new implements in the future. There are no ways of predicting it.

The only thing we can do is to have comments on what we can do at this point. We know that if Google is changing your titles, there is something wrong with it, or a point could have been better.

If you detect that Google is changing your titles, you might want to work more on your titles to optimize them. You should keep in mind that even after Google changes your titles, you can still change them and write them as you want.

Of course, you would not want to change your title back to how it was because the chances of Google changing it again are incredibly high.

Now that you know about the details of why it changes and how you can decrease the chances of it happening, you are one step ahead of Google.

Another thing you can do is to be on track and watch your title’s frequently to detect any changes and intervene as soon as possible. It is not that your title change will result in disasters, but still, you would want to have a title that is written by you to fully represent your content and create a better first impression to your visitors.

And even though your rankings might not be influenced by this new update, your click-through rates definitely can (you know what that means in the long run). So, it would be best to watch out!

Lastly, it is essential to note that you should not change your entire content and SEO plan for every update. As we mentioned earlier, SEO is a dynamic field with tons of updates frequently and changing what you do in every update would be very time-consuming and inefficient.

Instead, you should always focus on increasing the overall quality of your content. No matter what happens and which update finds you, high-quality content with a unique representation would win.

Of course, it does not mean that you should now be up-to-date regarding SEO; the only point we are trying to make is that you cannot change what you do as each update drops!

Understanding the changes in Google’s algorithm is a must for everyone who has a presence in it. The following are some of the most frequently asked questions about Google’s new update that might help you to understand it better

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