Definition

What is a title link?

A title link is the clickable text that appears at the top of a result in Google. It is distinct from the title tag, which is the code written in the page. Google generates the title link automatically: it draws on the content of the page and on the references that point to it, then keeps what best describes the result for a given search. The tag you write is therefore a suggestion, not a command.

What Google uses to write it

Google documents that the generation of title links is fully automated. Its documentation names the sources it consults: the page's title tag, the main visible heading (the H1), other headings, the text of links that lead to the page and the content itself. For each search, the engine picks what best describes the result. It also states that it cannot manually change the title link of any particular site: no request will change it.

What remains possible is to improve the quality of the source. A title tag that describes the page in the customer's words, an H1 that says the same thing and internal links whose text names the page give Google few reasons to write anything else.

Title link and title tag: the difference

The title tag is what you write in the page's code. The title link is what Google shows. The two are often identical, but not always. Google rewrites the displayed title when the tag looks too long, repeated across several pages, empty of meaning or far from what the person is searching for. It may then use the H1, part of the tag or the text of a link pointing to the page.

This distinction changes the budget it is reasonable to spend on titles. A vendor who promises to “control” the displayed title is promising something Google has ruled out. A vendor who fixes duplicate tags and measures the click-through rate before and after is working on what can be measured.

The two mistakes that cost clicks

The identical title repeated across an entire site, of the “cheap products” kind, which makes two pages impossible for a buyer to tell apart. Google names it as a flaw and then composes a different title for each page itself.
The boilerplate title, long and varying by only a single element from one page to the next. It is common on catalogues, where a template writes it for thousands of product pages.

Fixing both flaws costs a few hours on the pages that matter commercially, for a direct effect on the click-through rate, and therefore on the visits that can become sales. It is the only line item in this job whose effect is measured in clicks.

Where to read the effect of a change

The Search Console performance report gives impressions, clicks and click-through rate page by page. Record the click-through rate of your twenty most-viewed pages before rewriting the titles: without a starting point, the effect cannot be read. Google then has to recrawl and reprocess each page to take the change into account, which can take from a few days to a few weeks. Set the review date at the moment of publication, then compare the click-through rate of the same pages. To see the title link itself, type the search into Google: it is the only place where it shows.

Example

Suppose a fictional online hardware store whose 300 product pages carry the same title tag: “Cheap products | Online hardware store”. For the search “18V cordless drill”, Google sets that tag aside and composes a title link from the product page's H1 and the text of the links that lead to it. The displayed title varies from one search to the next, and the team does not recognize it.

The team rewrites the product page tags: the product name, its main specification, then the store's brand. It records the click-through rate of the twenty most-viewed pages before publishing, then reads it again six weeks later, once the pages have been recrawled. The title link picks up the tag's text wherever the tag describes the page well.

How we read it

We read the title link as an outcome, not a setting. When the displayed title differs from the tag, we see a hint from Google: the tag does not describe the page as well as its content does. We then fix the tag or the H1 rather than try to force the display.

In a title project, we first pull the duplicate titles and the starting click-through rate on the pages that matter commercially. We then write each tag as a suggestion Google can accept: the word the customer types, the name of the page or product, then the brand. The effect is read on a date set in advance, on the click-through rate of the same pages.

Not to be confused with

Title tag: The title tag is the code written in the page. The title link is the text Google shows in its results, composed from that tag and other sources.
Meta description: The meta description is the text shown under the title link. Google can rewrite it too. It does not change ranking, it changes the decision to click.
H1: The H1 is the main heading visible on the page. Google often uses it to compose the title link when the title tag does not fit.

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Frequently asked questions

Why does Google change the title of my pages?

Because the generation of the displayed title is fully automated. Google draws on the content of the page and on the references that point to it, then keeps what best describes the result for a given search. It also states that it cannot manually change the displayed title for any particular site.

How do I know which title Google shows for my page?

Type the target search into Google: the title link only shows there. Search Console does not display it, but its performance report gives each page's impressions, clicks and click-through rate. A drop in click-through rate on a page whose title has changed is the signal to watch.

Can I force Google to show my title tag?

No. Google documents that the title link is generated automatically and that it does not change it on request. What you can do is give it a short, precise tag, an H1 that says the same thing and internal links that name the page. The more the sources agree, the fewer reasons it has to write anything else.

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