Google made changes to the Search Central rules that govern how title tag guidance is displayed in search results. The update clarified and eliminated numerous ambiguities in the terminology that made the guideline difficult to understand without altering the guidance itself.
How does Google modify the Title Tag guidance?
The function of title tags, which are meta elements, is to explain the subject matter of a web page. They also influence rankings. In order to make their website relevant for specific search terms, many publishers employ the title tag. Making use of keyword phrases in the title tags is even more crucial than Google displays title tags on the search results pages (SERPs).
For years, Google changed title tags when its algorithms found more descriptive text than the publisher had included. In the summer of 2021, the title tag rewrite feature in the search results increased significantly, upsetting the publisher and search marketing groups. Many people noted drops in search traffic, which they attributed to Google changing their title tags.
Modifications have been done by Google in title tag
Control your title links in search results is the unique advice Google offered on regulating title tags on October 8, 2021. The revised title tag advice revisions make it clearer what they intended by “headline.” The term “headline” is unclear because it could refer to the webpage’s title or an HTML header element (H1, H2, H3). It turns out that the word “headline” was used in the guidance’s initial iteration to refer to both the title at the top of a webpage and the HTML heading element (H1, H2, H3, etc.). The updated version of the guideline is more specific even though the page’s title is often a heading element.
The original text is shown below:
“Make it obvious which headline is the page’s main headline”.
The most recent version of the advice is as follows:
“Make it obvious which text is the page’s main title”.
Here is a portion of the original language that goes like this:
“Additionally, it may be confusing if several headlines have the same prominence and visual weight”.
The updated version reads:
“Additionally, it may be confusing if several headings have the same prominence and visual weight”.
The third revised clause’s original clause:
“Consider making sure that your main headline jumps out as being the most prominent on the page and is unique from other material on the page”.
The revised form of the same phrase:
“Consider making sure that your main headline sticks out as being the most prominent on the page and is unique from other content on the page”.
As you can see, the explanation significantly improves the guidance’s ability to convey its intended meaning. The final modification concerns the section that explains how Google chooses the language used in a title link that appears in search results.
The initial is as follows:
“The page’s primary graphic title or headline”.
The new version is:
“The page’s primary visual title is displayed”.
Google Clarified But Not Updated Title Tag guidance
The advice itself is unchanged, as was stated at the opening of the post. What has changed is that the paper is now substantially clearer and less unclear.