Google’s new system for generating titles – “Titlepocalypse,” which was supposed to generate titles for about 20% of the web pages in the search results, was not very well received. Many people had the opinion that the search engine giant rushed to roll out a system that they had not yet thoroughly tested.
Taking into consideration all the user feedback they received, Google revised the update to rewrite and generate HTML titles for just around 13% of the time. Furthermore, they provided an explanation on what triggers the system to rewrite a title tag.
So, what leads to a title tag rewrite?
In a document titled, ‘More information on how Google generates titles for web page results,‘ Google helps creators understand what exactly they look for in a title.
They explained that title elements are used most of the time. Google’s new system is said to use the HTML title element as the title shown in the search results around 87% of the time. Since 2012, Google has had to use text other than title elements when their system determined that the present title failed to describe a page well. Mostly, the web pages that fell into this category were those with empty title tags, duplicate titles regardless of the content on page, and pages with no title elements whatsoever.
The document also listed examples of when the system went beyond the title elements. The new system is designed to address certain situations where going beyond the title element may be more helpful for the web pages. Some of the situations are as follows:
Pages with Half-Empty Titles
Half-empty titles are titles where the site name may be present, but it may be missing the summary of the page. This situation generally occurs when templates are used to create titles. These tiles usually look somewhat like this:
| Site Name
The system detects such titles and tries to make adjustments based on the header elements or any other prominent text it can find on the page, such as:
Product Name | Site Name
Pages with Obsolete Titles
Obsolete titles occur when the same page is used every year but the title element fails to reflect the latest date. For instance:
2020 admissions criteria – University of Awesome
if the headline on this page reads “2021 admissions criteria,” the system will go ahead and change its title to:
2021 admissions criteria – University of Awesome
Pages with Inaccurate Titles
If Google detects that a web page’s title is not properly describing the content on the page, it will consider the title to be inaccurate. An example would be a page with dynamic content and a title that reads:
Giant stuffed animals, teddy bears, polar bears – Site Name
Google may then take it upon itself to change the title to something along the lines of:
Stuffed animals – Site Name
Pages with Micro-Boilerplate Titles
A micro-boilerplate title is one title that is used for a number of pages within a site, such as those used for television shows that may have several seasons, but the season numbers are omitted from the title. An example of such titles would be:
My so-called amazing TV show
My so-called amazing TV show
My so-called amazing TV show
The system may modify these titles to display the season numbers mentioned in the headline text so it becomes a little easier to identify which page is for which season.
Season 1 – My so-called amazing TV show
Season 2 – My so-called amazing TV show
Season 3 – My so-called amazing TV show
Final Takeaway
We have to give it to Google for acknowledging that the system they have in place for creating titles is not perfect. Moreover, they welcome creators to provide their feedback.
It may help to review and follow the guidelines provided by Google on their help page for creating good titles and snippets in search results. After all, Google uses the HTML title elements to determine the ranking 100% of the time!
Remember
1. Title tags are considered for rankings even now.
2. Continue to focus on creating great title tags with focus on target keywords.
3. Include H1 and H2 in any page content that includes your target keywords.