How to Write Page Titles for Google
Your page title is the blue headline in Google's results and the text on the browser tab. Of everything on the page, it's the line a searcher reads first, and often the only one. It sits in the page's code as the title tag, and every site builder lets you change it without touching code.
Three titles, before and after
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Home | Sourdough Bread Delivered in Leeds | Example Bakery |
| Products | Wholemeal, Rye and Seeded Loaves | Example Bakery |
| Fresh Artisan Sourdough Bread, Rye Bread and Seeded Loaves Baked Daily in Leeds and Delivered Across Yorkshire | Sourdough Delivered Across Yorkshire | Example Bakery |
The first two are what many site builders produce by default: the page's menu name, which tells a searcher nothing. Site Audit flags titles under 30 characters as too short. The third is the opposite problem. Google cuts titles off at around 60 characters (strictly, at a pixel width, so wide letters run out sooner), and everything after that point turns into "...". Site Audit shows you the title with the part that would be cut highlighted, so you can see what a searcher loses.
A page with no title at all is the one marked critical. Google then writes its own headline from the page, usually badly.
A pattern that works for most pages
What the page offers, one useful detail, then your brand.
- Put the words people actually search for at the start, where they can't be cut off.
- Add one detail that helps someone choose you: a town, a price, a year, what's included.
- Finish with your brand name, after a separator such as a pipe or a colon.
- Keep the whole thing between 30 and 60 characters, brand included.
- Give every page its own title. Two pages with the same title compete with each other, which the duplicate titles guide covers.
Write for a person deciding which result to click. Repeating a keyword three times reads like spam, and it is more likely to make Google rewrite your title.
When the headline and the title need to differ
The title tag and the big heading on the page don't have to match, and sometimes they shouldn't.
On this site, one of our blog posts is called "How Web Designers Can Show Clients the Site Is Working". It's a good heading for the page itself. With " | Duality Digital" added it came to 72 characters, so the end would have been cut off in Google. We kept the full sentence as the heading and gave the title tag a shorter version: "Show Web Design Clients Their Results | Duality Digital", 55 characters. Most SEO plugins let you do the same, because their "SEO title" field is separate from the page name.
Our build now refuses to publish a blog post or guide whose title tag runs over 60 characters, which is a rule worth copying in spirit: decide your limit once and check every new page against it.
Where to change it
- WordPress with Yoast or Rank Math: the "SEO title" field in the plugin's box under the editor.
- WordPress without a plugin: the theme usually uses the page name, so rename the page or add an SEO plugin.
- Shopify: "Edit website SEO" at the bottom of a product, collection or page. The home page title is under Online Store, then Preferences.
- Wix: the page's SEO settings, under "Title tag".
- Squarespace: the page settings, then the SEO tab, then "SEO title".
Many pages at once
If dozens of product pages have no title or the same one, look for a default pattern in your platform or SEO plugin, such as the product name followed by your brand. That stops new pages arriving blank. Then write the important ones by hand: the home page, your main services or categories and your best sellers.
Why Google sometimes ignores your title
Google rewrites some titles in its results, for example when a title is stuffed with keywords, is the same across many pages, or doesn't match what's on the page. A clear, specific title that describes the page is the best way to have yours shown as written. It can still take a few days for a change to appear, because Google has to visit the page again first.
To check your own fix, look at the browser tab, or tick the page in Site Audit and choose Verify my fixes. Missing, short and long titles are all re-checked straight away.