Hi Tanya,

It happens and there could be many factors like indexing, caching, Search ignores the preffered title , client using private search results as in logged in. I'm working on various sites that goes through the same issue every now and then, but It takes time to see the correct version once the cache is updated.

I would suggest you to wait and see and don't make too many changes in the title. You can show the client the screenshot or you can use this https://www.google.com/?gl=us&hl=en&pws=0&gws_rd=cr from UK and see if you see the same thing or not.

Agreed, with the comment above. DA is not a Google metric neither Google has endoresed it by any mean. SSL is more of a secured page which I agree in the future they might have some major role to play. Getting a link from secured or non-secured doesn't really make a huge difference, what makes difference is that the site you are getting a link from needs to be a quality site, in terms of UI, UX, Content, Technical aspects and of course linking strategy. A poor site can be secured but then you won't be getting any benefit out of it.