Google has affixed a number to my site listings

[irock]

Google has affixed a number ranging from 0 to 3 at the beginning of almost each of my site listings. Do you guys know why this is happening?

[piatkow]

Where do you see them? WMT or SERPS? If SERPs are you logged in to your Google account?

[irock]

I see the number in SERPs, and I'm not logged into my Google account.

[netmeg]

Sounds like a browser extension. Do you see them in all browsers?

[irock]

No, I'm pretty sure it's not browser extension. I see them everywhere... when Google affixes a "3" to my site listings on SERPs, I see the same on every browser. I even tried it with Macs at Starbucks...

[lucy24]

Can you do a screenshot? I don't understand where the number is.

[irock]

This URL points to an JPEG image... with my SERP listings. I'm not sure if the mod here allows it. But here you go...
[goo.gl...]

[Shai]

Hope this is not fake but if real, it's very interesting. Do you still see it now? Is it for this precise search only or on every search? If its every search, can you do a generic search and post the results? The image you posted is very limited. We need to see the whole picture really so let's see if a mod agrees to post one here.

[lucy24]

Very, very weird. With some trial and error I arrived on a SERP that contains one of your listed pages. What I see on this SERP is:

-- result with author photo
-- result
-- "Images for... " with link to More Images
-- result
-- result with author photo
-- 1 NUMBERED RESULT
-- result with thumbnail of video
-- result with author photo

et cetera.

For those who can't see: the number is shown as if it's part of the title. (The one I landed on happened to be 1.) Detour to page confirms that it's the actual title (and also the h1), not a google improvisation.

Is there any possibility that google's computer has gone haywire and is interpreting something in the page as part of the title? It would have to be something that all those other sites' pages don't have. The zero is doubly weird, though.

[aristotle]

I think Lucy is right -- Those numbers must come from your pages' content or source code.

Google's algorithm changes page titles sometimes, but I doubt that it would add numbers.

btw Are your page titles really that long?

[piatkow]

I had a quick try and couldn't replicate it (from UK). Is there a directory somewhere linking to you in that format? DMOZ perhaps?

[getcooking]

It looks like Google is for some reason pulling the number of comments on the page and adding that to the title. Weird.

[irock]

getcooking, YOU ARE A GENIUS! At least now, the number makes sense.

But it's not happening to all my pages... some of my more popular pages have over 20 comments, yet I don't see Google adding a number to those listings on SERPs.

[matrix_jan]

yup those are the number of comments, and if you wonder why they are being attached to the page title, look at the way you link to pages:

<a href="http://www.example.com/antec-250mm-usb-led-fan-15328.html" rel="bookmark" title="25cm USB Fan with LEDs is Geeky Cool (Limited Edition)">
<img src="/media/antec-250mm-led-fan.jpg">
<span class="related_posts_comments">0</span>
<span class="related_posts_title">25cm USB Fan with LEDs is Geeky Cool (Limited Edition)</span>
</a>

Having the comment-count inside a link is confusing for google. Take it out and you'll be fine.

Cheers

[irock]

Wow... Google is really smart in reading everything...

Many thanks for your help!