Page Title Displaying differently on Google
-
Hi i am wondering why page title is display differently on google search. The combination of words that are being displayed on google are not on the page and the page title is simply "Camera Filters", however the page is showing as "our range of Camera Filters" (with the same capitalisation).
http://awesomescreenshot.com/0cf4r09y27
I have optimised the age as best i can so it removes the OUR RANGE OF preface, however no luck.
Any info would be appreciated.
Cheers
-
I've actually run into 1) a lot. When you search for site: you get the raw index data, not what Google will show in live SERPs. This is a problem for rich snippet text as well; when Google can read your rich snippets but chooses not to show your mark ups, the mark ups will show up in site: but not in any other searches.
I was able to find the "our range" version when I was searching just now, so this is still a problem, I'm afraid.
I've given you my opinion in more detail below.
-
Hi Andrew,
Wow, this is an interesting find! Not something I've heard of before.
Like others have said, Google has recently started to take it upon themselves to rewrite your page title if they feel it's not descriptive enough. Linda shared a link that went over their official guidelines above.
Mmy theory is that "Camera Filters - Digital Camera Gear" isn't descriptive enough to Google (possibly because your brand name looks like a product category, which it may not like in the page title), so it's searching your site for more information about camera filters. I wasn't able to do a full crawl of your site, but I was able to find a few links to the Camera Filters page in Google's index:
- 8% OFF ALL Camera Filters during the 8th Month (which is now redirecting home, but Google still has it in its index): "Click here for our range of Camera Filters."
- Camera Filters - Which one... (which Google also has indexed separately in the blog pagination 2 - Digital Camera Gear
"To view our range of filters, please click HERE."
My theory is that Google has an algorithm that identifies low quality page titles and tries to replace them cleverly, but it doesn't have enough information to do that well in your case. To test this out, try writing a more robust <title>like:</p> <p><strong>Camera Filters - UV, Polarisers & More - Digital Camera Gear</strong></p> <p>My guess is, Google will like this better and stick with your page title.</p> <p>Let us know how this goes!</p> <p>Kristina</p></title>
-
Thanks Mark. Turns out it was "user error"
All appears fine in an anonymous search.
Thanks for bring up point 2. Is this really a issue as i would have assumed in google webmaster, google would have been "notified" about this. I have done a quick search on this though and cant seem to find to much info. Any idea on how to implement on a Joomla site?
Cheers
Andrew
-
Two things:
-
if you search for "site:digitalcameragear.com.au", you'll see the title as you entered it for the camera filters page. Not sure why it's showing up differently for your search. At first, I thought it was taking some content from the page, but the word "range" doesn't appear on the page anywhere. Very strange. As others said, perhaps in an incognito window it shows up normally.
-
Totally unrelated: the site seems to have issues with duplicate content on http://www.digitalcameragear.com.au/ and http://digitalcameragear.com.au/ (without www). There are no canonical tags, so you should either add canonical tags or redirect one version to the corresponding version across the site.
-
-
Usually when Google updates the title on its own it’s because the title is not optimized or too general against the desired query. The best idea is to redevelop your title and see if it works out for you!
Hope this helps!
-
Both Chrome and Firefox have incognito/private windows as a menu choice. A global way to do non-personalized search is to append ?pws=0 after the Google query URL. (And definitely be sure you are not logged in to your browser.)
-
Hi Linda the search was Camera Filters
I am unsure how do do an anonymous search???
-
What Google will show in the search results is partly based on what the person searched for. What was your search? (I see, based on the bolding, that it included camera and filters--were there any other terms?)
Also, what happens if you do an anonymous search? If you are logged in, you might be seeing things based on your history.
Here is a link with information from Google that might help.
-
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
I am not 100% convinced about this as Camera Filters would be the most relevant page title, not "our range of Camera Filters" with "our" not being capitalised either.
-
I do remember that Matt cuts said something about using criteria to change a web page title. When your title doesn't meet that criteria, Google will change your title.
Here're most important criterias:
- Short enough.
- Relevant to the query.
- describe what in the page and the site.
So, Google finds it more relevant to change your title.
Eslam
-
Thanks for looking.
Sorry, i dont understand.... If the page title is " Camera Filters - Digital Camera Gear"
Then why is google displaying "our range of Camera Filters"??
It should be displaying the title tag.
-
Hey Andrew,
I checked it for you and here's the details,
You page title is: Camera Filters - Digital Camera Gear. (In [title] tag)
You top heading is: Camera Filters .(in [h1] tag)
Simply Google shows your page title, not your top heading. So, you need to change your title tag.
Wish this help,
Eslam
-
Hi, the page has never been named as google is showing it at the moment. It has always just been "Camera Filters"
-
Google download a version of your page to show it in search results with a link to your page, and they update this version with time, perhaps the title of the page is old and Google didn't update it yet.
Eslam
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
301 redirected all my pages to my new domain, now I have a problem with Google Search Console
Hi guys! I bought a new domain name and redirected all my URLs from the old domain to the new one. Everything worked perfectly but now I have a little problem. I want to use the option 'Address Change' in google search console. Step 1 Works (Select new website in the list) Step 2 Works (Confirm that the 301 are working) Step 3 Asks me to Verify the old domain (huh!?) in order to complete the request. Obviously that doesn't work because my 301s WORKS! So if I try to verify the old website by putting a google file in the root of my domain Google tries to access it and it automatically redirects to the new domain. I must be missing something lol help!
Technical SEO | | benoit_20180 -
Google Webmaster Warning for Non-mobile Optimized Pages
I just received a warning in Webmaster Tools that my site pages are not optimized for mobile devices and the search results for pages will be decreased in mobile searches. Just got it yesterday and I see no drop yet, but anyone else seen this???? The notice states that the site is not optimized for viewport, text size and proper space for clickable elements. All of that is true since we have not yet completed our responsive design conversion. Any idea if Google will give us a little time to get this resolved, or do my rankings start dropping right away? Just when you think you are moving forward with Google, they pull the rug out again...
Technical SEO | | gametv0 -
How to stop google from indexing specific sections of a page?
I'm currently trying to find a way to stop googlebot from indexing specific areas of a page, long ago Yahoo search created this tag class=”robots-nocontent” and I'm trying to see if there is a similar manner for google or if they have adopted the same tag? Any help would be much appreciated.
Technical SEO | | Iamfaramon0 -
Google instant results different to results shown when press enter
A client's site, www.duorol.co.uk is top (or second if a youtube video makes an appearance) for the term duorol if you press enter after typing it in to google UK. Before you press enter though, their site is not listed in the results bought back for instant search. It's the same behaviour in incognito mode too. Very weird I thought. Does anyone have any ideas please? Their site's only been live about a month. Could that be anything to do with it?
Technical SEO | | OffSightIT0 -
How long does it take for Google for deindexing pages?
Hi mozzers, We just launched a mobile website(parallel) and realized that it created many duplicate content with desktop URLs. I decided to add name="robots" content="No index, No follow" /> to the entire mobile site. My only concern is that I am still seeing the mobile site indexed when it's been almost a week I added these tags. Does anyone know how long it takes google to deindex your content? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
How to Find all the Pages Index by Google?
I'm planning on moving my online store, http://www.filtrationmontreal.com/ to a new platform, http://www.corecommerce.com/ To reduce the SEO impact, I want to redirect 301 all the pages index by Google to the new page I will create in the new platform. I will keep the same domaine name, but all the URL will be customize on the new platform for better SEO. Also, is there a way or tool to create CSV file from those page index. Can Webmaster tool help? You can read my question about this subject here, http://www.seomoz.org/q/impacts-on-moving-online-store-to-new-platform Thank you, BigBlaze
Technical SEO | | BigBlaze2050 -
New Domain Page 7 Google but Page 1 Bing & Yahoo
Hi just wondered what other people's experience is with a new domain. Basically have a client with a domain registered end of May this year, so less than 3 months old! The site ranks for his keyword choice (not very competitive), which is in the domain name. For me I'm not at all surprised with Google's low ranking after such a short period but quite surprsied to see it ranking page 1 on Bing and Yahoo. No seo work has been done yet and there are no inbound links. Anyone else have experience of this? Should I be surprised or is that normal in the other two search engines? Thanks in advance Trevor
Technical SEO | | TrevorJones0 -
Google indexing page with description
Hello, We rank fairly high for a lot of terms but Google is not indexing our descriptions properly. An example is with "arnold schwarzenegger net worth". http://www.google.ca/search?q=arnold+schwarzenegger+net+worth&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a When we add content, we throw up a placeholder page first. The content gets added with no body content and the page only contains the net worth amount of the celebrity. We then go back through and re-add the descriptions and profile bio shortly after. Will that affect how the pages are getting indexed and is there a way we can get Google to go back to the page and try to index the description so it doesn't just appear as a straight link? Thanks, Alex
Technical SEO | | Anti-Alex0