Google update on how it generates web page titles
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 5:24 am
At the end of August, Google announced that it had introduced a new system for generating titles for web pages in its search results. In other words, it has admitted something that SEO specialists have been noticing for some time now with the appearance of meta descriptions and meta titles in SERPs – the attempt to use the entire content of the page (which can only be seen after visiting the: Headings, Main Copy, anchor texts, etc.) to generate the main information in the search results.
Unfortunately, their changes do not always represent web gmail email list pages in the best light and many SEO experts begin to predict a probable decrease in CTR between 25 and 30%.
Negative effects after Google update
To visualize the situation I will use the Ipanema home page as an example:
Existing metadata
Meta Title : B2B marketing agency Barcelona, inbound marketing services and digital marketing agency
Meta description : B2B marketing agency in Barcelona that helps B2B companies grow. We design and implement marketing strategies based on inbound marketing.
post1image1
Google results for different searches
Below you can see some of the Google results for different searches.
Page title as original , Meta description different.
description
Different title , description as original.
title
Different title and description.
title-and-description (1)
What is the most likely reason for the substitutions and where does the information used come from?
In the following quote we can get a clearer idea of why the title of a search result may be different from the <title> tag:
“If we see any of the above issues* in a result title, we may try to generate a better title using anchor text, text on the page itself, or other sources. However, in some cases, even when pages have well-crafted, concise, and descriptive titles, Google may display different titles in search results to provide users with the most relevant information for their query. The reason is simple: titles provided by website owners are static and not tailored to queries.” (
*The "problems mentioned above" part refers to a list of your tips on how to best create the items.
Why has Google changed the title and description?
In our case, referring to the title, the probable reason is because we have a longer title, which contains 97 characters.
Regarding the description, I really don't have any suggestions.
What information has Google used?
In the first example, in the description, shown with the red box, you can see the alternative text of an image.
header-logo-link-information
In the second and third examples, the most likely reason for the title change (Ipanema) comes from the texts of the internal links we have on the website.
We have 362 links to the page with:
Anchor text: “ Ipanema . B2B Marketing Agency that does Inbound Marketing”
and
Alt text: “logo- ipanema -agencia-de-inbound-marketing-B2B”
crawl-results-1
And again in the third example, in the description we can see image alternative text.
crawl-results
So what should/can we do now?
It is advisable to follow Google's recommendations:
Put <title>tags
That they are not too short or long
That they are descriptive and concise
Do not abuse keywords
Do not use repeated or standardized text
Also, it is possible that the situation will improve with another update, but in the meantime we have to:
Try to restrict the chances of this happening by optimizing your meta titles and meta descriptions according to their recommendations.
Check the most likely places where Google may decide to collect information to create the new titles and descriptions and make corrections if necessary.
Unfortunately, their changes do not always represent web gmail email list pages in the best light and many SEO experts begin to predict a probable decrease in CTR between 25 and 30%.
Negative effects after Google update
To visualize the situation I will use the Ipanema home page as an example:
Existing metadata
Meta Title : B2B marketing agency Barcelona, inbound marketing services and digital marketing agency
Meta description : B2B marketing agency in Barcelona that helps B2B companies grow. We design and implement marketing strategies based on inbound marketing.
post1image1
Google results for different searches
Below you can see some of the Google results for different searches.
Page title as original , Meta description different.
description
Different title , description as original.
title
Different title and description.
title-and-description (1)
What is the most likely reason for the substitutions and where does the information used come from?
In the following quote we can get a clearer idea of why the title of a search result may be different from the <title> tag:
“If we see any of the above issues* in a result title, we may try to generate a better title using anchor text, text on the page itself, or other sources. However, in some cases, even when pages have well-crafted, concise, and descriptive titles, Google may display different titles in search results to provide users with the most relevant information for their query. The reason is simple: titles provided by website owners are static and not tailored to queries.” (
*The "problems mentioned above" part refers to a list of your tips on how to best create the items.
Why has Google changed the title and description?
In our case, referring to the title, the probable reason is because we have a longer title, which contains 97 characters.
Regarding the description, I really don't have any suggestions.
What information has Google used?
In the first example, in the description, shown with the red box, you can see the alternative text of an image.
header-logo-link-information
In the second and third examples, the most likely reason for the title change (Ipanema) comes from the texts of the internal links we have on the website.
We have 362 links to the page with:
Anchor text: “ Ipanema . B2B Marketing Agency that does Inbound Marketing”
and
Alt text: “logo- ipanema -agencia-de-inbound-marketing-B2B”
crawl-results-1
And again in the third example, in the description we can see image alternative text.
crawl-results
So what should/can we do now?
It is advisable to follow Google's recommendations:
Put <title>tags
That they are not too short or long
That they are descriptive and concise
Do not abuse keywords
Do not use repeated or standardized text
Also, it is possible that the situation will improve with another update, but in the meantime we have to:
Try to restrict the chances of this happening by optimizing your meta titles and meta descriptions according to their recommendations.
Check the most likely places where Google may decide to collect information to create the new titles and descriptions and make corrections if necessary.