Numerous websites reported that Google is ignoring the page title tags, replacing them with something “equivalent”. The discussion started on the WebmastersWorld forum with several “upset” webmasters claiming that Google is shoeing page titles that are different from what is included in the page HTML.
Well, instead of being upset, I would rather try to understand the issue. Not a big fan of Google myself, I still recognize the fact that whatever they do, they do for a reason. Matt Cutts says that “We (Google-J.S.) reserve the right to try to figure out what’s a better title.” Of course, one can shout “who are you to determine a better title for my page”, but the answer to this is pretty simple – they are GOOGLE, world’s number one search engine. And with the SPAM issue so hot, their quest of fighting “crawler-fooling-techniques” is understandable.
So, when does Google try to find an alternative title for a page? According to Google’s John Mueller, this happens when “the titles are particularly short, shared across large parts of the site or appear to be mostly a collection of keywords.” Those titles are regarded as “inappropriate” by the search engine that will try to replace them with “other text on the page”.
Some might see this as a violation of rights and yet another step towards global domination by the greedy Google. What I see is the basic principle of SEO – offer a solid and interesting content in your website and you will rank high. Page title should definitely be remarkable and unique, providing the user with the most important info about the page. So, instead of complaining about Google policy, go and check your page titles. If they are good I am sure Google won’t touch them.
