Google shows different text homepage vs snippet

#911644
  • Resolved Paul Welling

    9 months, 3 weeks ago

    Rank Math free

    I have rebuilt my existing website with a new theme about 2 months ago. I have used Rankmath for my site instead of Yoast that I used the previous years.

    For some reason my pages don’t get indexed well. My homepage https://wta.nl/ can be found in Google search, but the site title and descrition are completely different from the Rankmath snippet that I made about 2 months ago.

    Google search result
    Rankmath snippet

    The displayed title “Paul Welling: Tekstschrijver Eindhoven” can’t even be found in the source code of my homepage. How can this text even be indexed? Is it still an old index, maybe a leftover from Yoast? Although I did follow Rankmath’s install procedure to disregard Yoast’s data.

    Or does it have something to do with the fact that my url doesn’t include ‘www’ and that the slug in the WordPress editor is /home whereas the url is https://wta.nl without /home ?

    My other pages on the site can’t even be found in Google search (except my Portfolio page), for example:

    https://wta.nl/tekstschrijver-eindhoven/
    https://wta.nl/copywriter-eindhoven/

    These are duplicates from my homepage with small textual adjustments.

    I don’t understand what’s wrong. Haven’t I used Rankmath correctly?

    Hope you will take a look. I’ve added my WordPress login in Sensitive Data.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • RankBot

    9 months, 3 weeks ago

    Hello,

    We apologize for the issue you are facing with your website’s indexing and the discrepancies between the Google search results and the Rank Math snippets you have set. Thank you for providing detailed information about your situation.

    Why Google Might Show Different Titles

    Google often chooses to display different titles and descriptions in search results for various reasons, even if you’ve set them correctly in Rank Math. Here are some potential causes:

    1. Old Indexing: If your homepage title is showing as "Paul Welling: Tekstschrijver Eindhoven" and it cannot be found in your source code, it might be an old index from when you were using Yoast. Google may take time to re-crawl and update its index after changes are made.

    2. Title Rewrites: Google may rewrite titles based on its algorithms, which consider various signals such as relevance to search queries, keyword stuffing, or if the title is too long or not descriptive enough. You can find more about this in our article on why Google might choose not to use your title.

    3. URL Structure: The absence of ‘www’ in your URL should not affect indexing directly, but it’s good practice to ensure that your site is accessible both with and without ‘www’. You can set up redirects if necessary.

    4. Crawling Issues: If your other pages are not indexed, it could be due to crawling issues. Ensure that your robots.txt file is not blocking any important pages. You can check this using Rank Math’s settings or by reviewing the robots.txt guide.

    Steps to Take

    • Check Indexing Status: Use Google Search Console to check if your pages are indexed and if there are any crawl errors.
    • Resubmit Sitemap: If you haven’t already, submit your sitemap through Google Search Console to help Google discover your pages faster.
    • Review Meta Tags: Double-check the meta tags in the source code of your homepage and other pages to ensure they are set correctly using Rank Math.
    • Allow Time for Reindexing: Sometimes, it takes a while for Google to reindex pages after significant changes.

    If you continue to experience issues after following these steps, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further. We’re here to help!

    Ike

    9 months, 3 weeks ago

    Hello,

    Thank you for contacting us. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.

    We can confirm that our plugin is adding the correct title and description that you have set in the snippet editor of our plugin. You can confirm that with this tool: https://rankmath.com/tools/meta-tag-analyzer/

    However, Google can choose to display a different title and description. It is a pretty common thing with Google these days. It happens with 70% of the results and we even have a KB dedicated to this problem and a few solutions we recommend:

    Please check the KB and you will understand the reasons Google does this:
    https://rankmath.com/kb/different-meta-title-and-description/

    Google has made some changes to their algorithm which automatically changes the titles, discarding the one you have set in your SEO title meta tag. This happens regardless of the SEO plugin you are using. We have covered this Google update here:

    Google Title Rewrite Update: https://rankmath.com/google-update/google-title-rewrite-update/

    Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.

    Paul Welling

    9 months, 2 weeks ago

    Rank Math free

    Hi Ike. Thanks for your reply.

    I have checked every tip from the automated reply and your tips. But every page seems to have been indexed by Google alright. And I also see the right snippets and meta tags from Rankmath. I only don’t see the correct titles and descriptions in the Google search results yet. So I hope it’s just a matter of time.

    Thanks for now. I’ll try to be patient for another month or so.

    Reinelle

    9 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hello,

    Yes, please give Google some time as even if the title/description are correctly added in the source code, it sometimes ignores the custom meta info altogether and shows something from the page’s content that matches the search intent better.

    Meanwhile, if you have any other concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us anytime so we can assist you further.

    Looking forward to helping you.

    RankBot

    8 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hello,

    Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.

    If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.

    Thank you.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The ticket ‘Google shows different text homepage vs snippet’ is closed to new replies.