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New Google Title Tag Update Causes Some Sites To Lose Search Traffic

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After Google’s Title Tag update, many Google SEO agencies and online businesses noticed that 20 per cent of search results have title errors. Some have even called it the Titlepocalypse because they have experienced a drop in Google SEO traffic, presumably because the search engine rewrote the page titles poorly.

A search marketer posted a screenshot on Twitter about a casualty from the Title Tag update. They uploaded a photo showing a subfolder on an e-commerce website where Google replaced title tags with H1 tags, which made the web pages appear worse in the search results.

They stated that their site traffic and click-through rate declined by more than 60,000 and .6 per cent respectively in the past week.

The good news is their website did not lose rankings; their position on the Google page remains the same. Some SEO experts concluded that many websites lose traffic because of the poorly rewritten title tags from Google.

Here are some of the most prominent errors that the SEO community noticed after Google’s Title Tag update:

  • Wrong Location In Title Tag

    Complaints from Google SEO agencies and site owners have flooded the Webmaster Help Forum discussion ever since the search engine company updated their system of rewriting titles. Many publishers shared that Google was poorly rewriting their original title tags in search results.

    A publisher – who owned a local type website with multiple locations – shared that Google rewrote their title tags using the wrong location. They added that the new system update does not properly represent the titles’ “brand attributes”. They also reported that their click-through rate had a massive drop instantly.

    Writing the wrong location in the SERP title is bad news because it gives users the impression that the product or service the web page offers is not available in their locality. Therefore, users will not click on the search result and will move on to the next competitor site instead.

  • Adding “Vaccination” In Health-Related Titles

    Google’s Title Tag system is adding the word “vaccination” in titles for pages about illnesses that actually don’t discuss vaccination.

    One SEO shared that one of their healthcare clients had articles about Flu and Polio, and the content did not cover anything about vaccinations. However, Google still put “Flu Vaccinations” as the page’s new title tag.

    The SEO said that the rewrites were also a huge problem for Your Money Or Your Life (YMYL) content. YMYL pages refer to content that may have a negative effect on the quality of peoples’ finances and lives. Google’s Search Quality Rating guidelines describe them as topics that could possibly affect a person’s future happiness, financial stability, health, and safety.

  • Capitalisation Errors

    A search marketer made a post on Twitter, saying how Google used the wrong capitalisation in the SERP titles. Apparently, the system mixed uppercase with lowercase words, which resulted in an odd appearance. The SEO uploaded a screenshot of a title tag with its first letter in lowercase.

    If a site owner checks the web page’s code, they will see that the strange mix of lowercase and uppercase letters in the title does not exist on the page. This means that the awkward look of the new title tag is basically the system’s fault.

  • Google’s Title Tag System Could Have Been Rushed

    The whole search community continues to report so many errors that many are concluding that this particular update was not thoroughly tested.

    Google had thousands of search quality ratings, and so with these recurring errors, one would think that the search engine company would be able to detect and fix the issues before they launched the update.

Create Unique Title Tags So Google Won’t Have To

Based on past research and speculation, Google rewrites title tags because of a mismatch between the title and the content. Others speculate that the original title could be too long, which results in the tag being cut off midway through the sentence.

If online businesses and site owners create unique and captivating title tags that match the users’ queries, it can reduce the possibility of Google changing their title tags. Here are some of the best practices when doing so:

  • Write a custom SEO title for each web page

    It’s recommended to write a custom SEO title to increase the chances of it showing on the SERPs. Skipping this step just makes Google’s system use the page’s H1 tag as the title tag, and these usually aren’t very descriptive.

  • Write a unique and descriptive title

    Every page must have a unique title that exactly describes what users will find on the page. Sometimes, site owners use one SEO title for multiple web pages. This results in a poor experience for users who rely on titles and search snippets to find the best answers for their queries. Publishers who create a poor experience for searchers are more susceptible to have their titles changed by Google.

  • Ensure that the titles are not too long

    Google only allows a limited number of pixels for SEO titles in the search results. If the title exceeds the pixel limit, Google will rewrite it so that it could be fully displayed on the search results.

    There are a few ways to ensure that your title will have the right number of pixels. One could stick to a specific character limit, which is usually 50-60 characters. However, Google uses the pixel size as its primary basis, so relying on character count alone does not guarantee that your original title will be retained. Publishers can use a title tag preview tool to see what the snippets would look like in the search results.

Work With Position1SEO – The UK’s Number 1 SEO Agency!

Our experts here at Position1SEO are more than capable of guiding you through the complexities of search engine optimisation. We can help you manage your website’s H1 tags, title tags, and meta descriptions to ensure that your pages look enticing to users in the SERPs. We can also provide your pages with relevant and fresh content to boost your rankings and eventually drive more traffic to your website.

Our team have years of experience working in the SEO industry. We have improved many different websites from various niches over the years, and we can present your products and services in a way that perfectly describes what your business does. Moreover, our team can fully optimise your web pages for proper Google crawling and indexing.

We are committed to using proven white hat SEO tactics and a no-stone-unturned approach to skyrocket your Google SEO rankings.

For more information, call us on 0141 404 7515 or email us at office@position1seo.co.uk.

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Author: Jason Ferry
Jason Ferry is an SEO specialist based in the United Kingdom. Taking pride in his many years of experience in the search engine optimisation industry, he has honed his skills in various digital marketing processes. From keyword marketing, website auditing, and link building campaigns, to social media monitoring, he is well-versed in all of them. Jason Ferry’s excellent skills in SEO, combined with his vast experience, makes him one of the best professionals to work with in the industry today. Not only does he guarantee outstanding output for everyone he works with, but also values a deep relationship with them as well.

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