SEO Title shows up different in Google

Hi Jos,

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

1. First of all, I am assuming that you have already changed the SEO Meta Title and Meta Description with the help of Rank Math:

Add a Meta Description in Classic Editor: https://i.rankmath.com/dhECkg
Add title and description in Gutenberg: https://i.rankmath.com/ZO21Cd

2. Then, ensure that this is the setting in the Schema tab if Rich Snippets are enabled on your website:
https://i.rankmath.com/pG0pcS

To reiterate, the Schema title must show %seo_title% and the description should show %seo_description% – this will ensure your SEO title and SEO Description that you set up via Rank Math can also be used for your schema details:

3. The next step is to check if your title/description is properly set up in the page source:
https://i.rankmath.com/HwXR1o

You can use this tool for the same as well: https://www.heymeta.com/

4. If it matches your settings, then you must check if Google has seen the changes already or not.

For that, please check when the Google cache was updated for that page:
a. https://i.rankmath.com/9q6X0H
b. https://i.rankmath.com/R8N0Uh

If the cache date is from before adding the new meta description, then you just have to wait for Google to re-crawl and re-index the page with the new info. If the date is after you made the changes,then you just have to wait it out and there is no further input needed from your end.

Do note that if everything’s fine and Google still decides to show a different meta title/description for your search keyword, there is nothing you can do as Google sometimes ignores the custom meta info altogether and show something from the page’s content that matches the search intent better.

Here are some of the common reasons Google might not use the meta description you provided:
– The meta description is not relevant or useful (ie, just a collection of keywords).
– The exact same meta description is provided across a large number of pages.
– The meta description doesn’t match what the user is searching for, but other content on the page does.

There is a whole article dedicated to this on SearchEngineJournal:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-offers-suggestions-for-avoiding-meta-description-rewrites/359884/

Here is an example showing Google changes title depending on keyword used:
https://i.rankmath.com/oT6VQe
&
https://i.rankmath.com/Mrhb0x

The best you can do is optimize your meta tags to try and match the intent of the search/keyword.

Hope that helps. If you have any further question(s), please let us know. Thank you.

Hi Jos,

That’s completely normal for Google to include your brand name in the title’s automatically – even if you deliberately leave them out from your titles.
​
​Here’s an article mentioning that as well.
​
​https://seo-gold.com/marcus-lemonis-website-seo-review/google-automatically-adds-brand-name-to-titles/

​And a link to Google’s forums with replies from Experts saying that it is like that on purpose:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/5328043?hl=en&msgid=5328043
​
If you wish to know Google’s guidelines on writing Good titles, here are the guidelines straight from the horse’s mouth:
​https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35624?hl=en
​
​With that said, it largely depends on keyword intent too. For some keyword searches, your custom title might appear while for others – Google might append your brand name to the title and there is nothing you can do to force them to do otherwise. That is regardless of what SEO plugin you use.
​
​Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.

Hello,

We are super happy that this resolved your issue. If you have any other questions in the future, know that we are here to help you.

If you don’t mind me asking, could you please leave us a review (if you haven’t already) on https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/seo-by-rank-math/reviews/#new-post about your overall experience with Rank Math? We appreciate your time and patience.

If you do have another question in the future, please feel free to create a new forum topic, and it will be our pleasure to assist you again.

Thank you.