Google Simplifies the Title Tag Guidelines

One of Google’s latest updates includes guidelines for how Google displays Title Tags in search. The current and updated guidelines have made it easier to understand how title tags work. It helps publishers and SEOs update their content and titles accordingly.

The previous guidelines referred to headings as headlines, making it harder to understand if it was referring to either the page title or the heading tags such as <title>, <h1>, <h2, and more.

How does this affect search results?

When a publisher assigns the highest (H1) heading to more than one section, Google Search Algorithm edits the title tags appearing in the search results to represent these headings. Often this results in poorly generated title tags that do not do justice to the content.

A downside of this is decreased traffic, as reported by many publishers and SEOs. They attributed it to the title tag rewrite. This sheds light on the importance of properly utilizing the heading (H tags) in published content.

The highest heading is just one of the few sources Google uses to identify the page title. Here are a few other sources.

• Webpage’s main visual title
• <title> element
• <h1> heading element

Learn about the other sources Google uses to determine title links with its official guide.

Updated guidelines ensure there is no ambiguity, providing publishers with precise information.

• The previous guidelines in question were: Make it clear which headline is the main headline for the page.
• The updated guidelines now state: Make it clear which text is the main title for the page

It means making sure that your page title is the most prominent heading on the page.

Consider reserving the <title> or <h1> tag, whichever has the highest prominence throughout your content, solely for the title. This will make it easier for Google algorithm to identify and represent your titles in the search results accurately.

The thing to remember: When multiple headings are assigned the same prominence and visual weightage, it can confuse the search engine. Publishers who avoid implementing this specific guideline will continue facing decreased traffic due to rewritten title tags.