I can’t remember when I first became accustomed to searching Google for my daily needs. But one thing I do remember is that I used to pay attention to the headlines or titles (as we call them) in order to determine if the web pages displayed matched what I was looking for, and I am sure that is what we all do.
This is one of the primary reasons for Google’s page title update, as the Search Engine works hard to provide the best titles and throws them on the SERP pages in order to connect searches with businesses.
Google’s new Page Title update replaces less than 20% of title text on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) with text Google considers relevant to the query.
What are Title Tags?
If you’re not sure what Title Tags are, they’re the blue headlines you see before you click on a link in a search engine results page.
These title tags are crucial for SEO, and a poorly optimized title reduces the number of clicks, resulting in less traffic to your website.
What’s Google’s Page Title Update?
In SERPs, Google replaces the page title if it determines that it has not been adequately described. Previously, website developers determined these headlines, ensuring that they accurately reflect the brand and page content.
However, this update allows Google to completely disregard page title tags if it believes they are not accurately displaying the pages’ content. To draw up the revised title, it will consider the main headline (H1), the other headings on the page, the text in the body, and other internal link text.
The Page Title update has caused significant problems for a few websites, and it has also been reported that Google is removing the relevant city or state from the title tags of local pages in some cases. This has caused some users who are looking for nearby services to become puzzled.
Fortunately, Google has confirmed that it will use the assigned HTML tags 80 percent of the time, which means that if you optimize the titles with the end user in mind, they will be displayed exactly as they are. However, the following are a few factors that Google will disregard and rewrite your title tags for:
1. When the title tags are excessively long (greater than 65 characters)
2. When keyword stuffing occurs
3. When it does not accurately reflect the page content
What Should You Do in Order to Keep Your Title Tag?
We all know that Title Tags are important for a website and SEO, but Header 1 tags are even more important because they are the first content that users and search engines will see. You should keep an eye on your Click-Through-Rate (CTR) in Search Console to see if it has decreased. While creating your title tags, keep the following points in mind.
- Focus on creating high-quality page titles that closely portray the page content and use keywords in an effective manner.
- Headers are even more important now, and they can be used to determine the title of your page. As a result, your page’s header 1 or main heading should not be overlooked, and it should be of high quality and sum up the page content. It should be written with the end user in mind, rather than the search engine.
- If possible, try to answer the searcher’s query in the first paragraph of articles and blogs.
- Include the city name in the page title, header, and body content of local pages. This means that you should include a description of the location, as well as other nearby areas and landmarks, wherever possible.
Conclusion
The Page Title Update, in contrast to previous algorithm updates, has been difficult for Google. It’s very likely that an update will be released soon to address the known bugs.
When it comes to core search updates, it is best to keep an eye on your website’s traffic and rewrite your page titles if you notice a significant change in clicks or click-through-rate. Join Digital Ready today if you are interested in learning about SEO and the SERPs.
Source: Digital Ready
