Google Result – Page Title different to that specified

Further to this, the following is the Page Source Code if that helps:

<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin v1.4.18 - https://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/ -->
<title>Website Design Caboolture, Website Designer Caboolture</title>
<meta name="robots" content="noodp,noydir"/>
<meta name="description" content="Web Design Caboolture. Based in Morayfield near Caboolture, we offer affordable Web Site Design and Website Hosting. So if you are in Caboolture area, give us a call to see how we can help."/>
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.spottydog.com.au/website-design/web-design-caboolture/" />
<link rel="publisher" href="https://plus.google.com/116015834727933180366/about"/>
<meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/>
<meta property="og:type" content="article"/>
<meta property="og:title" content="Website Design Caboolture, Website Designer Caboolture"/>
<meta property="og:description" content="Web Design Caboolture. Based in Morayfield near Caboolture, we offer affordable Web Site Design and Website Hosting. So if you are in Caboolture area, give us a call to see how we can help."/>
<meta property="og:url" content="https://www.spottydog.com.au/website-design/web-design-caboolture/"/>
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Spotty Dog Computer Services"/>
<meta property="article:publisher" content="https://www.facebook.com/SpottyDogComputerServices"/>
<meta property="og:image" content="https://www.spottydog.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/custom-website-design-300x213.jpg"/>
<meta property="og:image" content="https://www.spottydog.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/SEO.jpg"/>
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/>
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@spottydogcomp"/>
<meta name="twitter:domain" content="Spotty Dog Computer Services"/>
<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@spottydogcomp"/>
<!-- / Yoast WordPress SEO plugin. -->

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Hey Spotty,

I am no expert as i am here looking to solutions to SEO problems i am having but i think i can help you with this part. Right now you have it set up as follows:

%%title%%(<–post title, “web design caboolture”) %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%

and so you get:

Web Design Caboolture (%%title%%) – Spotty Dog Computer Services

Because the title of the page is “Web Design Caboolture” in your permalink. what you will need to do is change the permalink to “Website Design Caboolture” right above the post body by clicking on edit. But it looks like you want the title to repeat it’s self (keep in mind that if you change the title template it will do so to all your post titles) so to do so you would have to use this instead:

%%title%% %%sep%% %%title%%

I recommend at least using your site name at the end like so %%title%% %%sep%% %%title%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%

The result should be Website Design Caboolture – Website Design Caboolture – Spotty Dog Computer Services

A good way to play with it is after you make changes you can go back to the post or page and in the “wordpress SEO section of the editor” you will see the snippet as it will appear in google before the next sitemap submission. keep in mind it takes a bit for it to take on google so it will show in 24hrs or so.

Hey surgeprotector.

Thx for taking the time and effort for such a long answer.

I think that perhaps I should have started my submission by asking, “shouldn’t manually changing the SEO Title on a page override %%title%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%sitename%%”
The snippet preview shows exactly what I was expecting on a Google Search Result, yet I am getting the result as explained, and if you look at the Page Source, you’ll see that it indeed has the appropriate Page Title and Description etc.

There was one part of your answer however, that triggered something in my memory.

I stopped using the Sitemap Generator used as part of the Plug-in as it caused an error, and I started using a different Plug-in to generate the Sitemap.

I have subsequently deactivated that plug-in and started using the Yoast alternative, so I’ll wait and see if that is what the issue was.

Cheers
Iain

OK, so the latest update is that I started using the Yoast sitemap generator again, and Google Webmaster Tools notifies me that all the sitemaps cause a 404 error (which is why I switched to a different Sitemap Generator originally).

That aside, I still have the same problem. Even though I have specified a Page Title, Google serves up the page url as the Title along with the Site Name.

So instead of Google displaying this snippet:

Website Design Caboolture, Website Designer Caboolture
https://www.spottydog.com.au/website-design/web-design-caboolture/
Web Design Caboolture. Based in Morayfield near Caboolture, we offer affordable Web Site Design and Website Hosting. So if you are in Caboolture area, …

They display this:

Web Design Caboolture – Spotty Dog Computer Services
https://www.spottydog.com.au/website-design/web-design-caboolture/?
Web Design Caboolture. Based in Morayfield near Caboolture, we offer affordable Web Site Design and Website Hosting. So if you are in Caboolture area, give …

Does anyone have any idea why this would be so?

Where are your 404 errors coming from? categories?

The issue with the sitemaps might be having another plugin issuing the sitemaps instead of YoastSEO. I also tried to see if i could look at your sitemap and its not found on your server. CHeck your settings to make sure you are actually generating a sitemap

On this website. it’s all the sitemaps that have 404 errors.
On a different website I have, it is just one sitemap which I will probably exclude.
I have no doubt that there is a plugin that is causing the 404 error, but that is overcome by using a different sitemap generator like Google XML Sitemap Generator.
The current sitemap is at https://www.spottydog.com.au/sitemap.xml and works fine and doesn’t report any errors in Webmaster Tools.

So back to my pressing problem, which is Google not displaying the correct Page Title.

Any ideas?

Add this to titles and metas under post types:

%%title%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%page%%

title= category (might show category depending on your settings, omit if still doesn’t work)

page= “Website Designer Caboolture”

Hi Surgeprotector.

I assume the inclusion of %%page%% twice is an error?
But that aside, why would I need to change this at all.
Manually specifying the Page Title when editing a Page or Post should change what Google sees as shown in the source code:
<title>Website Design Caboolture, Website Designer Caboolture</title>
In fact if you visit the page, the Browser displays it as this too.
So the question remains, why does Google’s search result display what it does?

I’m confused ??

Based on what you have said, you have your “Post Type Settings” to display the site name at the end %%sitename%% and you don’t want that correct? Having it the way i wrote was not an error it is what will force google to do by giving priority to the page title above anything else.

Since you are looking for the page name (Web Design Caboolture) in category “Web Site Design” to display twice with out the site name then it lends to reason to have the settings with the page name twice and omitting the site name, hence %%title%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%page%%

“Web Design Caboolture. Based in Morayfield near Caboolture, we offer affordable Web Site Design and Website Hosting. So if you are in Caboolture area, give …” this section is what i presume to be your site description which will follow your site name correct? If you want to keep this portion then you will have to add this to the category description or the meta description in your page (hard to know how you have it set).

Now as far as google” Google decides what they deem important on your site no matter what your site map says and they will display it how ever they want and you have no control over that. The only control you have is how you have it set up on your sit. For example, looking over at your site you have “Website Design” as the “parent page” of “Website Designer Caboolture” is that also your category? If so then google will deem “Website Design” more valuable than “Website Designer Caboolture” and display that first.

As far as the source code: <title>Website Design Caboolture, Website Designer Caboolture</title> that is not what google sees but what your browser sees or needs to, to display your page so it has nothing to do with google.

Hi Surgeprotector.

I’m sorry if I’m frustrating you with this, and it may appear that I am not listening to you, but I am listening.

It’s just that it is my understanding that the Yoast Plugin allows you to override the Post Types (ie. override %%title%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%page%% ) by letting you manually specify Page Titles on each page. If I am incorrect I am happy to admit that.

In the meantime I have changed the Page Post Type to %%title%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%page%% as per your suggestion and I will give it a few days to see if there are any changes in the Search Results.

Thank you for your patience and persistence, it is appreciated, and I will get back with the results.

Well changing the Page Post Type to %%title%% %%page%% %%sep%% %%page%% made absolutely no difference.
It appears that Google will display what it wants, and not what I want ??