Why Google change page title in the Google search results ?

[alexod]

Hello,

One of my clients have PI law website based in California. It's multilocation office and they have >20 locations in California.

When i try to search for main keywords -for example - "Car accident lawyer" (from LA, different keyphrases), i get strange results in google search results. Google add "Los Angeles" at the end of title.

What's is weird that when I checked all first 20 law offices that are on 1st and 2nd page and google change only our title ... (add city name).

I know about Matt Cutts video, but

1. our title isn't short
2. We have meta description, and there isn't any LA city mentioned
3. it's not relevant to the query
4. We don't have LA in h1/h2 tags
5. We have mentioned in Schema markup as main location
6. but we aren't the only one, who have LA in schema markup, h1

So question why google change only this title ?

-
P.s. I need to check that website from other locations to see if google change it, or no ?

thanks

[keyplyr]

Turn off location in your browser, clear cache, close browser and try again. If you still see the city in the SERP listing, then you have a valid concern as to why it is there.

However, it is normal for the local SERP to kick in for certain searches. Consider your example - "Car accident lawyer" This would most often be a local search, and a good thing. It may help your client get more clicks.

Also, since this company does have multiple locations, the listing identifies which one is relevant to the user. If you searched from San Francisco you would likely get results from that area. This is governed by IP & location & type of search.

[Robert Charlton]

Google has been rewriting titles since 2010 or earlier, and its stated purpose in doing so has been to increase relevant click-throughs. It's also likely that it wants to present a set of titles to its users which don't contain too much off-topic vocabulary.

1. our title isn't short

When Google adds something to a title, it's not simply just filling in empty space. A title that is too long is more likely to get rewritten than one that is the correct display length, which is now roughly 70 characters.

Google often removes what it sees as keyword stuffing, and replaces the vocabulary with terms that most efficiently suggest to the user... in the context of the query... what the page is about. In a localized query, this often includes location, which isn't always explicit in the search vocabulary. It will also add other potentially relevant vocabulary when appropriate.

Regarding the question is why is Google adding the city name to the end of your title and not to the others in top results... the likely answers would depend on the other sites as well as on yours....

- You note that the cityname isn't included in your meta description. You don't say, though, whether it's displayed in the descriptions of competing pages.

- We also don't know whether the other titles got rewritten at all. If they weren't too long, and the cityname was in the page descriptions, chances are that Google might leave the titles alone. Google might also be evaluating clickthroughs on results with citynames in titles vs clickthroughs on citynames in descriptions, etc, etc, etc. Google is always testing.

Here's a thread from 2012 that touches on some of the considerations that might affect what's rewritten....

Google is now rewriting all my page titles
Aug 2012
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4480232.htm [webmasterworld.com]

[alexod]

KeypLyr

Turn off location in your browser, clear cache, close browser and try again. If you still see the city in the SERP listing, then you have a valid concern as to why it is there.

The same

This would most often be a local search, and a good thing. It may help your client get more clicks.

yep, but right now i'm talking about organic results and not about local.

Also, since this company does have multiple locations, the listing identifies which one is relevant to the user. If you searched from San Francisco you would likely get results from that area. This is governed by IP & location & type of search.

No ... website have separate pages for each location and one for this specific page -this practice area. Btw the same picture with another practice area page ...

I'll test something else ... what if i add Los Angeles to our title :-) ?

[keyplyr]

but right now i'm talking about organic results and not about local.

As said above, local search kicks in often when the search is best returned with local results. And again, your client has other locations, so since you are searching from an IP located near LA, you may see LA locations returned in the search.

This is not something to be alarmed about. This is normal.