• About
    • History of Dallas SEO
    • SEO Expert Witness Service
  • Contact
  • Topics
    • Bing
    • Blogging
    • Branding
    • Domain Names
    • Google
    • Internet Marketing
    • Link Building
    • Local Search
    • Marketing
    • Public Relations
    • Reputation Management
    • Search Engine Marketing
    • Search Engine Optimization
    • Search Engines
    • Social Media
    • Tech
  • Advertise
  • Email Newsletter

Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Search, Marketing, Tech, and Domains.

traffic analysis tools

Home » Search Engine Optimization » Search Engine Optimization: Did Google Change My Title Tag Without My Permission?

Search Engine Optimization: Did Google Change My Title Tag Without My Permission?

Posted By Bill Hartzer on February 17, 2011at 11:56 am

Yesterday, here on my blog, I wrote a blog post about tracking your Google rankings.

I wrote about a site called SEOette.com that will help you track your website’s rankings in the Google search engine. Here is where it gets really interesting. Today, when checking the search engine rankings of that blog post, Google, for whatever reason, has decided to change the title tag of that blog post–without my permission!

Let me explain.

I wrote the blog post, and put a title on it. This is the title of the blog post (this has never changed):

Search Engine Optimization with SEOette.com: Track Your Google Rankings

I use WordPress for my blog. Whenever I write the blog post title, that ends up showing up as the title tag. I also have a setting on my WordPress blog that tells it to automatically add | (a pipe symbol), and my name, Bill Hartzer.

Since I wrote the blog post and the title tag, I have never changed the title tag of the blog post.

However, when you search at Google for “Track Your Google Rankings” (which *IS* a phrase in the title tag but at the end of the title tag), the actual Google search result looks like this:

Go ahead, take a look for yourself, by searching for this at Google.

Google has chosen, for whatever reason, to completely change my title tag in the search result. Not only does Google decide to show the keyword phrase that I search for, but they are only showing the last part of the actual title tag. They have also, for whatever reason, actually changed the | (pipe) symbol in the title tag to a – (hyphen) and then added my name.

I have been trying to figure out where this is coming from. Where did Google get this title tag, and why did they change the pipe symbol to a hyphen?

If you are familiar with the Google search results, then you probably know that the title tag is always used as the first part of the search results. That has never changed (up until this point). After the title tag is displayed, they typically will show your meta description tag (or part of it). If the meta description tag is not there or the keyword that you searched for is not in the meta description tag, then most likely they will display data from the body copy of your page. And then they display the URL.

Let’s look at this specific example, though:

In this case, the title tag is not being used. Google has scraped or taken the title tag from somewhere else (not from my web site). Google then displays text from the first paragraph of the blog post (which is logical). They then display the URL of the blog post.

So what does this mean?

Is this just a weird coincidence? Or is Google actually messing with the title tags now and what they display in the search results. For search engine optimization professionals like myself, this is quite unnerving, to be honest with you. It appears that we no longer can dictate (for certain) what our title tag will be in the search results.

I can completely understand the fact that Google displays different text in the “middle part” between the title tag and the actual URL, based on search queries. But why on earth, Google, would you take it upon yourself to completely change my title tag without my permission?

Filed Under: Search Engine Optimization

traffic analysis tools

Listen to "Digital Marketing with Bill Hartzer" on Spreaker.

About Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer is CEO of Hartzer Consulting, LLC, an SEO Consulting firm that includes services such as search engine optimization, technical SEO audits, domain name consulting, and online reputation management.

Recent Posts

  • Andrew Muller on Testing Google Ads Using Facebook Ads January 15, 2021
  • Mike Rhodes from Web Savvy On Google Ads January 8, 2021
  • How to Opt Out of Google Analytics December 16, 2020
  • Majestic Just Changed SEO and Linking Forever December 15, 2020
  • Yext Consumer Search Trend Predictions for 2020 December 8, 2020
  • SearchBox Launches SearchAI SmartSuggest, SearchAI Answers and SearchAI Personalization December 7, 2020
  • Google Poly is Shutting Down December 2, 2020
  • Domain Name Brokers Put FFF.com and HHH.com Domains Up for Sale December 1, 2020
  • Google Webmaster Tools Moves Twitter Account November 11, 2020
  • Email Deliverability, Setting Up DMARC, DKIM, and SPF on Your Domain October 29, 2020
  • The Bing Search Engine is Now Microsoft Bing October 6, 2020
  • Beck Power on Building Authority on Social Media and Repurposing Content October 2, 2020
  • Naira Perez on Paid Media, and an Intro to Social Paid Media, and Audiences September 17, 2020
  • Fake Birth Date Used on Google and Apple Accounts Is on Credit Report August 17, 2020
  • What is Bill Hartzer Disease? July 20, 2020
  • Web Host Agents Sending Fake Invoices for Website Hosting July 17, 2020
  • Duane Forrester On Search Intent and Internal Site Search July 9, 2020
  • Google Loses Blogspot.In Domain Name July 8, 2020
  • Peter Leshaw on In-House Digital Marketing and Dashboards for Reporting July 2, 2020
  • Mark Traphagen on Schema, Schema Tools, and On Page SEO Tools June 29, 2020

DFWSEM logo

Bill Hartzer is a Brand Ambassador for:



Industry Friends

WTFSEO
SEO By the Sea
Jeff Lenney
Jeff Gabriel
Phil Drinkwater
Dixon Jones

Connect With Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer on Twitter
Bill Hartzer on Instagram
Hartzer Consulting on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on Facebook
Bill Hartzer on YouTube

Categories

  • Advertising (19)
  • Bing Search Engine (6)
  • Blogging (42)
  • Branding (12)
  • Domain Names (197)
  • Google (228)
  • Internet Marketing (24)
  • Internet Usage (84)
  • Link Building (52)
  • Local Search (38)
  • Marketing (176)
  • Marketing Foo (30)
  • Pay Per Click (1)
  • Podcast (8)
  • Public Relations (8)
  • Reputation Management (9)
  • Search Engine Marketing (44)
  • Search Engine Marketing Events (47)
  • Search Engine Marketing Firms (19)
  • Search Engine Marketing Jobs (33)
  • Search Engine Optimization (156)
  • Search Engines (202)
  • Social Media (187)
  • Tech (7)
  • Web Analytics (16)




Note: All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only, and are mentioned only to help my readers. All other trademarks cited herein are the property of their respective owners. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement.




Hartzer Consulting



Website, Content, and Marketing by Hartzer Consulting, LLC.

Copyright © 2021 by Bill Hartzer and Hartzer Consulting, LLC.

Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
Go to mobile version