Hello, My websites title is as follows: "Tin Signs - Vintage/Decorative/Antique Signs | Metal Signs Direct" Yet Google displays it as: "Metal Signs Direct: Tin Signs - Vintage/Decorative/Antique Signs" Can anyone explain why this happens and if it is a bad thing? Also, from an SEO point-of-view am I better off seperating the words in the title with commas (e.g 'Vintage, Decorative and Antique Signs') or leave it as it is? Or does it not make a difference?
OOPS you miss the URL to check in how Google displays the results.With the info I have I think you have modified title and it takes some time in Google to recognize changes.Google is quite fast in indexing new stuff but quite slow at indexing changes.
Right i am going to assume here that - it simply wasn't a title change that google has not updated and go straight into this - WARNING - This is my opinion based on trend: I have noticed for a couple of years that some sites including the corporate ones i used to manage had a different title and description to what we inserted and i can only come to one conclusion - this is that google must be testing some new nasty kit/software that essentially ignores the META tags on your site. The robots are now just scanning and deciding what your site is about. IMHO
Hi, Thanks for the response. I should have mentioned that Google has definately updated the listed title to my current title. I have never had the listed title as my actual title on the page. Here is the URL for the search results. It should be at the top. Or a search for "Metal Signs Direct" should list it as #1: http://www.google.com.au/#hl=en&out...924,d.dGI&fp=16f929a2e10a324&biw=1619&bih=735
Although I have never seen this before I am sure it mustn't be uncommon. I just checked another one of my websites and when I search for the company name itself the title comes up as 'Company Name'. But when I search for a keyword that it is listed under, the page's actual title appears.
Google can and do pull text for this relevant to the "search query" at times I have noticed. Also they can and do pull titles that don't really seem to make a lot of sense (on the face of it) in regards to the search query made or the on site titles it has to pick from. In much the same way as Google pull descriptions for their "snippets" from text within a page they can do the same for titles. This does not mean that your description you have written is a pile of doggy do either do it just means Google have pulled the text which is in their view more relevant to the search query that was made to see the listing. I have noticed that some of my sites are being listed with their titles bearing no relevance to the search query whatsoever. This is usually though when my "WP Blog" index page is being listed and Google just seems to change the "snippet" description as posts are made. I can check a search result and see a non related title and underneath a description that is usually from the last post and then I can check the same result a week later after a post or two and low and behold the description "may" have changed to my latest post and my title might again still bear no relevance to the search query made to see the listing. Here is an example Google > find a good s30 service to hire using Google.co.uk (changing the s30 for SEO) and look at the BLUNDERBIRDS listing in 3rd position (not the one in 2nd or 4th) and you will see the title is not relevant to the search but it also is not the same title it was last week (or recently when I last looked). I even have on or two page 1 listings where info diplayed on Google is pulled from pages on the site that are not from the page listed as the URL in search results.