Complicated Title Tag Issues. Experts, Please Help!
-
Hey there Moz community! This is the first time I ask a question here so please forgive me if I miss any forum etiquette.
I am managing SEO for an educational site which is built in React Js, and so far much of the job has been keyword research and site optimization. The site still has slow PageSpeed though.
The Issues - 4 weeks ago we published 20 or so content pieces, I had pre-prepared title tags and meta descriptions. But when we released the content there was a programming error that made all of the pages show another title tag for all 20 pages instead of the pre-prepared individual title tags.
I noticed this after 3 days and the issue was fixed within 6 days, but by then Google had crawled and indexed the pages. And now I can't get Google to change to the pre-prepared tags no matter what I do! I've tried changing the content, changing the URL of one of the pages, and I've sent Google spiders to re-crawl the pages multiple times.
The super weird thing is that the correct title tag shows in the 'navigation bar/tabs bar' on google chrome:
But NOT when I view the source code for the page:
Yesterday I was taking a walk in the park and I just couldn't stop thinking about it (it is really starting to get to me by now since nothing works), so I ran back home and looked closely at one of these pages in the Google search console. And I noticed something I hadn't seen before… BOTH of the title tags can be found in the HTML:
Pre-prepared title tag: <title></strong>UK Seat Belt & Car Seat Laws: The Definitive Guide<strong></title>
The other title tag (in src section): title=Ace%20The%20DMV%20Permit%20Test%20%26%20Get%20Your%20License
Could this be the problem or what do you think? I've understood that Google has automated title tags and that they can choose their own if they think it fits better, but the title tags aren't even close to describing the topic as it is now so it doesn’t make any sense.
All answers are greatly appreciated! Your advice is life-saving for a learner like me.
P.S. I love SEO but it can be very frustrating sometimes!
Thank you very much,
Leo
-
UPDATE: It worked!!!!!! I'm so freaking happy! Love you guys!
-
This could definitely be relevant to us as the pagespeed is slow when first entering the site (like 6-7 seconds...) and a lot of resources are loaded (primarily unnecesary JavaScript and render-blocking resources according to Lighthouse). We're working on the pagespeed but I'll pass on this info to the development team in the meantime. If the Ross fix doesn't work we'll put the tags as high up as possible in the .
Thanks a lot, seoelevated! You are an absolute champion!
P.S. We're also changing to nextJS which, as I've understood, should solve a lot of JavaScript SEO issues.
-
Primarily, the requirement is to be in the section. However, I have seen cases where a long-load-time resource in the above meta tags can cause meta tags to be ignored. These were fairly extreme cases, where the resource took multiple seconds to load, synchronously. But moving the meta tags (and Title) above those resources fixed the issue. Also, in another case, we had a snippet from a CDN provider which included an iframe, and in that iframe there was a section and a closing . It turned out that Google was ignoring all of our tags after the which was injected in that iframe, even though it was only supposedly closing the section opened within the iframe. Once we moved that iframe to the end of our own section, below all our meta data, the issues resolved. So, with all that, I do recommend putting meta data at the top of the section, but depending on what else is in there, it might not be an issue for you.
-
Hi Leowa,
As long as it comes before you're fine.
-
Hi Seoelevated, thanks! It is in the section, but below google analytics and google tag manager scripts. Is that good enough? Although as it is right now the wrong title tag shows in the page source but we're implementing fixes according to the feedback from Ross (which will hopefully help!!)
-
I also suggest to double check that the actual title tag (the first one you included in your post) is in the section of the page, and not the . And preferably high up in the section before any scripts or other elements which could take significant time to load. Check this in "view page source" and not just using the "inspect" function of the browser's dev tools, to ensure that some scripts on the page aren't altering the title tag after the document is loaded, since the search engines may instead use whatever is initially set in the actual of the document before scripts execute.
-
Sounds good!
-
Hi Ross!
Thank you so much for your answer! I will try this immediately and let you know how it goes
Leo
-
Hi there,
I had a similar problem at one of the client's websites. You must remove the second title from the page because Google is confused about which title is correct. It is possible that the first titles are dynamically generated by the script and they are being overwritten by the second titles or vice versa. By the way, this "%20" means space in a programming language.
Ross
-
Hi, I noticed that the images I added don't show. So to clarify:
The 'navigation bar' on google = the tabs-bar on the top of chrome
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
This one is complicated... canonicals, href lang tags and no index
Bear with me, this is complicated (I REALLY hope one of you comes along and says, no it isn't!) Scenario A client has multiple english pages, as they have a unique product offering in AUS, US, UK, NZ and also have a global site in english. Obviously there is a lot of duplicate content and they have the relevant href lang tags set-up to help Google untangle what should be ranked where. They also have rel-canonical on each page. I've set-up search console for each of the folder structures, i.e. en-us, en-gb, en-au and so on. They have an optimised page for one of their primary keywords, which ranks nowhere for this exact keyword, but this page DOES rank for 40 similar keywords. For the exact keyword, they rank 52nd, and frustratingly, it's the homepage that ranks. We know the correct page is ranking and is indexed because search console tells us so and we see the exact page appear in SERPs for the other 40 keywords. When I look at the en-us site in Search Console, it tells me that the home page is not being indexed, because a rel canonical tag is prioritising an alternative page (probably the global site) - however, the en-us homepage is showing up in rankings for a lot of their important keywords. The site has been live for 6 months and the optimised page for about 3 months. Questions 1. If search console is saying the homepage is not ranking, how is it showing up in SERPs?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Algorhythm_jT
2. Why is the homepage ranking for this important keyword, when there is virtually no mention of the keyword versus the page that is almost perfect according to Moz's on-page grader?
3. Do you need href lang tags AND rel canonical on a page?
4. How long before a new page that is optimised for a keyword take to replace (and hopefully surpass) the homepage?
5. If the US is the most important market, should we guide Google to that fact using rel-canonical? Really appreciate your feedback, hivemind. Thanks0 -
Why is my landing page title tag being applied to the entire site?
I have a unique title tag for every page on my site but depending on what page a user lands on, that title becomes the title tag for the entire site. For example, if you come in from SERPs via the "Zach King: My Magical Life" page, the title "Zach King: My Magical Life" title will be applied to every page on the site even though they have unique title tags. This is the site: https://www.shelfstuff.com/book-shelf. Any ideas on how to fix this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | craigkleila470 -
Multiple H2 tags
Is it advisable to use only one H2 tag? The template designs for some reason is ended up with multiple H2 tags, I realise if any think it's that each one is that are important and it is all relative. Just trying to assess if it's worth the time and effort to rehash the template. Has anyone done any testing or got any experience? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoman101 -
Company name in title tags for lesser known brands - yes or no?
Hi Mozzers I read an interesting post over on Authority Labs this morning about title tag length and how Google changes the way they are displayed. The author Brian advises that, "if you want your title tag to remain unchanged, it's worth making sure that you're staying within the 50-59 character window and that your titles fit with the content of the page". This got me thinking... Given the limited amount of title tag characters that are now shown in the SERPs, I find it difficult to include a primary keyword, secondary keyword and the company name. So, if you're a lesser known brand is it worth sacrificing your company name in the title tags of deeper pages for a secondary keyword to help with rankings, or even a special offer to grab a users eye in the SERPs? What are people's views on this? Thanks Anthony
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tone_Agency0 -
Robot.txt help
Hi, We have a blog that is killing our SEO. We need to Disallow Disallow: /Blog/?tag*
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Studio33
Disallow: /Blog/?page*
Disallow: /Blog/category/*
Disallow: /Blog/author/*
Disallow: /Blog/archive/*
Disallow: /Blog/Account/.
Disallow: /Blog/search*
Disallow: /Blog/search.aspx
Disallow: /Blog/error404.aspx
Disallow: /Blog/archive*
Disallow: /Blog/archive.aspx
Disallow: /Blog/sitemap.axd
Disallow: /Blog/post.aspx But Allow everything below /Blog/Post The disallow list seems to keep growing as we find issues. So rather than adding in to our Robot.txt all the areas to disallow. Is there a way to easily just say Allow /Blog/Post and ignore the rest. How do we do that in Robot.txt Thanks0 -
Google changing the meta title for the homepage causing branding issues
A client of mine." Ross X Bute" current meta title is "Luxury designer clothing | Womens designer clothing" for the homepage. If i search for luxury designer clothing it will show the full meta title for the homepage. however if i search for the brand name.... "Ross & Bute" will show instead of the meta title. Whats the problem? Well my client a few month ago has decided to re brand the business to have a "X" to show instead of the "And". The rest of the site is branded with an "X" rather than "And" The URL www.rossandbute.com, so you can understand where google is getting this assumption from. Is there anyway to change this so it reads the the meta title in the SERPs? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Martin_Harris0 -
Indexing issue or just time?
Hey guys, When I publish a post on our blog, I notice that it barely shows up in SERPs even if I copy and paste the title verbatim into Google. All my settings in Yoast are correct from what I've seen. Is this just Google slowly getting around to crawling our site? Or is something else wrong here? We recently shut down and relaunched our site about 3 weeks ago. Here is the site URL: The Tech Block
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ttb0 -
What is the downside with having too long of a title tag?
With Google placing so much relevance on title tags, it seems to help if you mention local cities within your title tag. I'm wondering if the positive of having more keywords in a title tag outweighs the negative of having too long of one?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TLSNET0