Google Updates Best Practices For Writing Page Titles
Today I came across this article by Google, it was posted on Oct. 12, 2021. Let me start by saying that what we know and refer to as meta page or page titles are now called "title links" which take the users to a page found in search engine results.
Google has updated their best practices for writing page titles, this also includes tips on how to prevent your titles from getting replaced in search engine results.
This update is designed to replace some of the page titles in SERPs with texts that are more readable and accessible.
Googles Search Central provides a revised list of these new best practices for writing page titles. They also have a list of the most common issues that lead to page titles getting replaced.
A meta title and a title link can be different pieces of text even though both of them are page titles.
Writing a descriptive text in the <title> element you can let Google know what you want them to display as a title link.
If Google chooses to use your preferred title or an alternative, the text within the <title> element is going to be used for SEO ranking purposes. Here is Google's list for best practices for writing page titles.
- Make sure every page on your site has its own title specified in the <title> element
- Create unique titles for each page. Avoid "boilerplate text." (not sure what that means)
- Keep titles concise and avoid unnecessarily long text.
- Write descriptive titles and avoid vague text such as "Home" for the homepage.
- Don't repeat text in titles for the sake of adding more keywords.
- Brand your titles when appropriate by appending the name of your site to the front of them.
Here is their list of common issues that lead to Google replacing them.
- Incomplete- Titles that are half empty or missing any kind of descriptive text. Example: <title>lsite name</title>
- Obsolete- Title that has not been updated to reflect an update to the main content.
- Inaccurate- The title element doesn't accurately reflect the main content.
- Micro boiler-plate text- There's repeated boilerplate text in the <title> elements for a subset of pages within a site
Sources To Create Title Links
- Conten in <title> elements
- Main visual title or headline shown on page
- Heading elements such as <H1> elements
- Other content that's large and prominent through the use of style treatments
- Other text contained in the page
- Anchor text on the page
- Text within link that point to the page
I'm glad I came across this article, I believe it's important information and changes for us to know.
Virginia
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Thanks for these updates friend. I will make a note of it. All the best!