Write Title Tags to Conform to Google Guidelines or Let Google Rewrite
The SEO industry is abuzz with the Google taking the onus of rewriting titles of articles, blogs, and any other content in the SERPs. Since mid-August, the SEO industry started noticing massive title rewrites, which was a clear departure from the earlier practice. Let Google rewrite is making minor changes to titles like adding the business name to the end.
Google is doing now to completely transform the title with different text, which is as good as writing the titles afresh. One SEO Company in India feels that although the scale of rewrites is not yet clear as SEOs have already gone through the experience, it shows that the range is quite expansive and likely to grow in the future.
What prompted Google to change titles drastically?
Google has always attached immense importance to titles that appear in the SERP. It helps to present the most relevant result against specific search queries and encourages users to click on it. In its endeavor to refine the search results and present the most accurate results, Google continuously updates the search results.
But since May 2021, the pace of the updates has been unprecedented. Between May and August, when Google started title tag rewrites on a large scale. There have been multiple updates to the search results in rapid succession, accompanied by a significant increase in People Also Ask (PAA) features.
The interactions of people with the PAA features reached Google in the form of data that underlined what users mean when they frame or use certain search queries and data about why they did not click on certain search results despite being relevant to them. It might be presumed that the cause for not clicking on some results by overriding its relevance could be that the title tags were perhaps not descriptive enough.
The insights about people’s interaction with search results gathered through PAA may have helped Google understand that the improper title tags prevented users from clicking on the search results despite being relevant.
Many Titles fall short of Google’s expectations
According to Google guidelines, each title must be unique and, at the same time, brief but descriptive so that viewers can guess correctly what the content is about. It needs no reiteration that the titles should be clear and concise and reveal what the content is all about so that users can get enough hints about what to expect from the topic and its relevance. It should help them decide whether to click on the reach result or look for something better.
The SEO industry has been following the guidelines religiously for years. Still, there seems to be some gap between the level of descriptive accuracy that Google expects and what the industry can deliver. Or else, why should users refrain from clicking on some search results despite recognizing their relevance to the search query?
Why are title tags important to Google?
Titles are like the tips of icebergs that help Google understand what lies beneath by using various technological tools to match the topic with the search query to present the most relevant and accurate result in the SERP. Interestingly, Google has never advised adding a keyword to the titles, although it has been one of the industry’s best practices since the new millennium.
However, it does not prohibit publishers from doing it, although it vehemently denounces stuffing unwanted keywords in the titles. Why the SEO industry started using keywords in titles remains a mystery because titles do have any remote connection to ranking. Surprisingly, the practice is still prevalent. No one knows for sure how it is beneficial for users because descriptive clarity of title tags is paramount to Google, and nothing else matters.
How users can make better use of title tags
To create the most appropriate title tags, users must start looking beyond the established industry best practices that still prefer placing keywords in the titles. Although keywords are important for ranking, it should never be a priority to place keywords in the title by overriding the need to create crisp, descriptive titles that reveal a lot about the content.
To place or not to place keywords in the title tag is a non-issue from Google’s perspective, and you must create title tags that are short but easy to understand and builds the right expectations of users about what they can find in the content.
The gap between the industry best practices and Google’s advice
Looking back at the SEO best practices as outlined in various articles published by the industry experts from time to time since 2000, the gap in the perception about what constitutes the perfect title tag becomes quite evident. Even after two decades into the new century, the SEO industry is still reliant on using keywords in the title despite Google’s declaration that the title tags do not impact ranking.
Although the SEO industry recognizes the need for the relevance of title tags to the content page, it keeps emphasizing the use of keywords in the title. It suggests various means of reinforcing the keywords so that it garners maximum attention from the search engines. Some experts even suggest that placing keywords in title tags should help to rank for that keyword. Moreover, keywords would encourage users to click on that page. All these are contrary to Google’s advice about creating title tags.
Adhere to what Google wants
From the above, it is clear that adhering to the so called best practices of the SEO industry does not equate with Google’s expectations about title tags. Realizing that the SEO industry is yet not ready to fulfill Google’s expectations about title tags, Google has now started rewriting the title tags by introducing updates that allow the rapid development and deployment of new ranking models and improvement of existing and introducing new algorithms. However, it isn’t clear whats the technology behind title rewriting is or the kind of data used for it.
It is a wake-up call for the SEO industry to recast its age-old ideas about creating title tags to align with Google’s guidelines or leave it Google to change.