Why is Google replacing our title tags with URLs in SERP?

[Mobify]

Hey guys,

We've noticed that Google is replacing a lot of our title tags with URLs in SERP. As far as we know, this has been happening for the last month or so and we can't seem to figure out why.

I've attached a screenshot for your reference.

What we know:

• depending on the search query, the title tag may or may not be replaced.
• this doesn't seem to have any connection to the relevance of the title tag vs the url.
• results are persistent on desktop and mobile.
• the length of the title tag doesn't seem to correlate with the replacement.
• the replacement is happening at mass, to dozens of pages.

Any ideas as to why this may be happening?

Thanks in advance,
Peter

mobify-site-www.mobify.com---Google-Search.png

[Mobify]

Hi Jesse,

Looking through our change log, it seems like our marketing team removed  "| Mobify" from all title tags on July 2nd.

They did it because "Mobify" is already in the domain name and is generally mentioned on all pages, so they didn't feel like it was necessary to call it out in the title tags too.

I'm going to add it back and see what happens. Will keep you posted!

Best,
Peter

[jesse-landry]

Hi again Peter,

That is very interesting and I see your confusion here. I repeated the same test and was given the same results without your brand name in query.. Still when Google is listing the title they are listing your brand name.

It seems to me that they really want your brand name to show in this title. Why? I'm not entirely sure. But that's what they're adding to your title here..

Try shortening your title on that page by a word or two and adding a pipe (|) and "Mobify." Make that your test page for this issue and see what Google does with it when the change populates. I have a funny feeling it might pull your full title at that point.

Most sites out there try to drag their domain/brand into each page title anyway. You can call it "best practice" or just a "funny habit" but I feel like this is what Google is looking for with your site.

I'm incredibly curious, so if you don't mind trying this out and reporting back I would be greatly appreciative.

Thanks and good luck!

[Mobify]

Thanks for taking your time to answer, Jesse!

Your hypothesis makes total sense, and I was hoping that was the case. Unfortunately, under further inspection, I'm still not sure.

Check this out. We have a page with a title tag "Retail App Engine: The Next Step in Your Mobile Commerce Strategy". I've attached a screenshot of what happens when I search for "Retail App Engine." I don't see why Google would not like our title tag in this case.

If you have any further ideas, I would really appreciate them!

Screen-Shot-2014-09-22-at-9.24.27-AM.png

[Chris.Menke]

If I may chime in, I'm guessing that the search was actually "site:mobify.com mobify" (without quotes). Whether that's right or wrong, however, I know does't answer the question.  However, when you do that search, you notice that there are numerous examples of similar occurrences. In each case, the titles are quite long.  This situation has been noticed before and there was even a post about it on the Moz blog by  Ruth Burr Reedy.  In that post, Ruth tracked down a likely possible cause as being that the title provided by the author is too long and because of that Google replaces it with it's best algorithmic alternative.

Peter, try shortening the titles and see if that solves your problem.

[jesse-landry]

This was intriguing to me so I dug in a little and I have an initial theory here:

In the example you provided you seem to be searching with your brand name only. "Mobify" is bolded telling me that was a searched keyword.

The title tag for the page in question reads: "25 Top Design Upgrades to Make Your Mobile Revenue Skyrocket [SlideShare]"

My bet is that because you do not have the brand name in your title tag, Google is looking to display something that does carry this particular keyword. In this case it is looking for something with the word "Mobify" in it and finding it in the URL. If you take out the SlideShare portion of your title and replace it with "| Mobify" my guess is this problem will go away.

Look at the other URLs you are having this problem with and tell me if the brand name is missing from it but present in the searched query.

Let me know if this works!