Google Adds Recommendations for Display Title Issues

The Title Link, or the name displayed at the top of the browser, is like a headline shown on the SERPs of various search engines. This Title Link appears at the top to inform searchers what the content on this website is about, which will help searchers decide whether to click on this website or not.

Many who start doing SEO have wondered, why does Google change the name even after spending so much time thinking of a Title Link? The question is, what reason does Google have to automatically change the Title Link? According to the latest announcement from Google Search Central, an update has been made to the Developer Support page to help users by providing recommendations and explaining the reasons for controlling the Title Link that will be displayed on the SERPs. This article will help clarify things for all SEO beginners. If you’re ready, let’s take a look.

What is a Title Link?

The Title Link is beneficial to internet users who are looking for information to make purchasing decisions. Because the Title Link is displayed from the search results on the SERPs. In addition, it is also useful in terms of technical SEO because when considering the relevance (Relevancy) of a web page to a search query, it relies on this Title Tag to rank search results to meet the interests of general internet users effectively.

For those who come to read on the Developer Support page on Google Search Control, you will find that Google explains or defines the meaning of the name that appears on the SERPs by limiting the meaning to a short Title Link. Developers can choose to set it themselves, or if left blank, the Google algorithm will set it automatically based on the idea of “making the Title text something that is easy to understand.” However, Google’s automatic creation of Title Links will consider the content and overall components, using various reference sources as follows:

However, the text that Google often pulls to set the Title is often stiff and robotic, causing many SEO experts to warn about this issue. If you let Google set the Title, it could result in a significant decline in your website’s SEO ranking.

7 Things That Will Affect Setting the Title Link Automatically by Google

On the Developer Support page, you can see that Google has suggestions for 7 practices that will affect the naming of the Title. Let’s take a look.

1. Make sure every page on your website has a complete Title Tag
2. The Title Tag should be concise, informative, and explain what the content on the website page is about. Try to avoid vague descriptions or even texts that are too long, which are often truncated when they appear on the SERPs. The recommendation is to be around 50-60 characters
3. Avoid putting too many keywords, resulting in Keyword Stuffing (keyword spam)
4. Avoid spamming the brand name too often
5. Avoid spamming Boilerplate
6. Sometimes, Google’s system likes to use parts of the Heading like H1, H2 to set the Title Link
7. Use the Robots.txt correctly. Remember that Robots.txt should be used to prevent excessive request calls in URLs, not to prevent web pages from being crawled by Google. Google warns that if you want to prevent pages from being indexed, use the noindex tag command, otherwise Google may end up setting the Title using the anchor text of that page

Tips if You Don’t Want Google to Help Set the Title Link

As you know, if you don’t carefully and adequately name the Title Link, it could be changed by Google’s system at will. But letting Google set the Title Link automatically is probably too risky.

Previously, research and articles from abroad have talked about this extensively, about how to avoid Google setting the Title automatically. But recently, Google has specified a checklist that website developers need to know if they don’t want Google to help set the name. Here are the details:

1. <title> that is more than half empty or too short. Simply put, if the Title Link is left blank too much, the Google system will view it as incomplete and the Google algorithm will immediately work to set the name automatically
2. <title> that is outdated, or the Title Link naming on the same page that has been used year after year without updating to show the latest date. For example, if the Title Link is set as “10 Most Expensive Schools in 2020,” but the Google system detects inconsistencies in the data because it is 2022, the system will automatically change it to “10 Most Expensive Schools in 2022”
3. <title> that is incorrect. For this, Google explains that the Title Link name should describe what is being discussed accurately. Google provides an example of naming like “Giant Stuffed Animals, Teddy Bears, Polar Bears – Site Name,” which is a complex naming that cannot be understood what the content on the webpage means. In this case, it should be named as “Stuffed Animals – Site Name”
4. Unclear Headline. Here, it refers to the component of the Heading. Simply put, the main heading should be different from all other headings in the content. For example, if there are more than one prominent headings and there is no clarity as to which text is the main Headline of the webpage, when the Google system detects it, it may choose the wrong one to use. The solution is to consider whether the desired main Headline is sufficiently different or prominent from other texts (e.g., using a larger font size, etc.)

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