The Title Tag Update from Google has caused so much havoc that some have coined the term “Title pocalypse.”For just under 20% of search results, Google does not display publisher title tags (commonly referred to as the SERPs). Because some sites are losing traffic, probably due to poorly rewritten titles in the SERPs, some in the search marketing community have dubbed Google’s title tag modification Titlepocalypse.
Google Title Tag Update Casualty
Search marketer Lily Ray tweeted about a casualty from Googles update. She noted that clicks declined by over 60,000 in the past week.
The site didnt lose rankings, the average position stayed the same.
The conclusion is easy, the site lost traffic because Google rewrote the title tags.
Lily Ray Calls Googles Update Titlepocalypse
Wrong Location in Title Tag
Because there have been so many complaints, Google has created a Webmaster Help Forum thread where publishers may report problematic title tags in search results.
Google was rewriting title tags and using the erroneous location, according to one publisher with a local type site with various locations.
A user will not click on the search result if it shows a city location that is not the one they are searching for. Having the wrong location in the SERP title is negative because a user will not click on the search result if it reveals a city location that is not the one they are looking for.
The discussion post states:
Hello, the latest change to titles is not properly representing the brand attribute of the title. You are appending Northern California regardless of the location of the search. This business operates in multiples states outside of the Northern California region. CTR has dropped significantly in these instances.
Google Mangles Health-Related Titles
A particularly bad implementation of Googles Title Tag update is in the health sector. Google is adding the word vaccination in the title for pages that are about an illness but not about the vaccination for the illness.
Capitalization Errors
Jennifer Sleg, a search marketer, recently tweeted about Google incorrectly capitalising SERP headings, resulting in an uncomfortable appearance with lower case phrases mixed in with upper case terms.
I checked the code of the web page and the mix of upper case and lower case in the title does not exist on the page. The awkward appearance of the title in the SERP is entirely the fault of Googles algorithm.
Was Googles Title Tag Algorithm Rushed?
Because the publishing and search communities have reported so many problems, it’s tempting to believe that this algorithm upgrade was not fully tested.
Thousands of search quality ratings are said to exist on Google. One would expect that some of these flaws, particularly in the sensitive areas of health and medicine, would have been discovered and corrected prior to the update’s release.
Is this a sign that Google is a little too confident in its algorithms?
Citation
Official Google Titlepocalypse Help Discussion
