Site title disappeared on Google search results

Check if your site is hacked and see if your meta tags are intact on your site.

mickyfu said:

Had the same thing a few times. Never found a way round it.

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The only way around it that I ever found, though it's certainly not desirable for a functional website, is to remove the page entirely or perhaps beyond any resemblance. It seems that doing that hits a 'reset' button. I did that accidentally in the form of the site expiring and a holding page being placed there (the hosting was still running), when I finally put content back on the site it had the title I wanted once the content was discovered.

The title change didn't affect the rankings though, it's as though Google says, 'okay we'll treat the page as though it has your title but it can fuck off because here's one that we prefer.'

vladmedv said:

God, so many useless posts made just to increase the post count...

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No shit, people obviously haven't even read your OP.

Have you perhaps added yoast SEO plugin recently, or updated it? That has caused this issue for me before.

Nicheblogger said:

No shit, people obviously haven't even read your OP.

Have you perhaps added yoast SEO plugin recently, or updated it? That has caused this issue for me before.

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You my friend also didn't read the comments above

why would his site be dancing if it is two years old?

kriwil said:

quite your site are in google dance, wait in a few weeks, also update content and build HQ links

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I have had this before alooong time ago and i believe was because of building new backlinks related but site only dropped a few places. no.2 to no.4 then just waited a while and it came back. You can try just resubmitting your site in WMT and see what happens over next week or 2.

If it doesnt come back then would suggest to write a completely fresh homepage content and check your seo Plugin and possibly switch plugins. EG, if using Yoast seo then switch to all in one seo. Also rewrite the mega description to something new then submit in webmaster tools.

vladmedv said:

Thanks a lot buddy, a lot of great info there!

This is happening only on the homepage, other pages have their titles as before.

I checked the search console and there are no penalties whatsoever. There is certainly enough content on the page, it's relevant and includes a good number of keywords spread out over h1, h2, h3, etc.

It's quite interesting actually. The first day this happened, I lost all ranks. Yesterday, however, my ranks got back up to where they were, even though the title on search results is still just the brand name. I definitely don't think that the title changed because there is no relevance, especially that it's just the brand name, if it was a set of other keywords I could agree on that, but no in this case.

The site is not included in Dmoz, but it is possible that Google is taking the title of my site from some other authority site. Perhaps Trustpilot? My site is listed there.

I'll try the meta you suggested. I'll also send you a PM with my site details, perhaps you could see it yourself, it is an interesting seo phenomenon, and a dangerous one (what if Google starts doing this more often?)

Thanks a lot for your help!

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I've only ever come across Dmoz titles being used but that was a few years back and I think Trustpilot has grown in authority since, so I guess it's possible that it's pulling from there. If so, I doubt my meta tag will help as I'm pretty sure that's telling googlebot to specifically not use any content from Dmoz. Doesn't hurt to have it though!

Feel free to PM me and I can take a look - would be interesting to see if nothing else. If not, definitely keep this thread updated, especially if you find a solution!

A number of people are mentioning possible issues with SEO plugins that could be causing the problem. The best way to rule that out would be to view the source code of the page. If a plugin is incorrectly setup and is pulling only the site name then it will also be showing just the site name in the code. I don't think this is the case as you have said in the OP that the title on your site didn't change.

Backlinks have been suggested. In my view this is unlikely to be the cause from what you have described, but could be possible if you have recently built a good amount of links with branded anchors to that specific page - could be Google adjusting to this and would likely settle. If this is the case then changing a few of these to semi-branded or building with a bit more keyword relevant anchor text might help, but I'd give it a while before trying that - assuming you even have built links lately!

UPDATE: I slightly changed the title, but still included my kwds. Resubmitted it in the search console, and today Google is finally showing my new title & old description.

I have no idea what caused the switch in the first place, will see how it behaves in the next few days.

My only guess is that the old title had couple exclamation marks and price starting from.. it also didn't include the name of the site.. Maybe the big G thought it's a bit unnatural.. even though I had this title for the past 2-3 months. The new title I made includes the brand name + my keyword, no exclamation marks, no price.

NOTE: My site is pure HTML/Java based, not wp. So no plugins were used that could've caused the issue.

Thanks a lot guys for all your input on this! I'll keep you updated if anything changes.

I also have been like this, and my site has been relegated badly. It only shows one part of the text in my article post when someone searching on google.

A great title can result in higher click-throughs and more traffic to your site while a poorly crafted title can cause people to skip over your sites and visit one of your competitors.