hi, i’m amr. you write a title for every page, and google may show something else. its documentation says where the title link comes from and when google steps in.
what google says, in its own words
- google “uses a number of different sources to automatically determine the title link”: the title element, heading elements such as h1, and other content that is “large and prominent through the use of style treatments”
- the process is “completely automated” and takes into account both the content of the page and references to it on the web
- if google detects an issue, it “may try to generate an improved title link from anchors, on-page text, or other sources”; with several prominent headings it may use the first heading; if the title’s language doesn’t match the page, it may choose different text
- there is no limit on how long a title element can be, and the title link “is truncated in Google Search results as needed, typically to fit the device width”
- write “distinct text that describes the content of the page”, and avoid boilerplate, repeated text and keyword stuffing
my reading, not google’s wording: a template that gives every page the same title, or the same brand suffix on all of them, is the repeated-text case the page warns about.
what to check this week
- pick ten pages that matter, such as your service pages and top posts, and search for each in google
- compare the title google shows with the one you wrote. where they differ, look at the page’s h1 and the most prominent text
- find pages that share the same title, or that begin and end with identical boilerplate
- fix the page, not the length. google gives no character count, so there is nothing to pad or trim to
where this stops applying
the page gives no character or pixel figures and makes no ranking claim, so this post makes none either. it is about what google shows, not where you rank. i covered the matching rule for descriptions in an earlier post.
start scaling — if google keeps showing titles you didn’t write, a one-hour page audit usually shows why. let’s connect.
Sources: Google Search Central, “Influencing your title links in search results” (developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/title-link). Figures are published product documentation, not verified results from Amr’s own client accounts.