[SOLVED!] SEOTools2 <title></title> issue

[qwalk]

I've been using SEOTools for years and it always worked perfectly.

But now I've encountered a bit of an issue, actually I've always met this problem, but never really bothered to solve it. But now it's really importalt for my client that we solve this issue.

Now in the "Page title & Meta information" tab under "Page title" and "Page Meta title" I just want the {$pagetitle} to be shown - and not the Sitename which would be the company name. So the values of those fields are just {$pagetitle}.

Now this works perfectly on all pages. When I read the source code, and browser tab title the information shown is correct. The only issue I am being met with here is the following:

When the website is being listed by Google, the front page's title in Google is displayed like this (with the "Company" being the name of the site/company): "Company: {$pagetitle} of the front page".


To fix this I've tried to remove all fields where the Company name may be, like Site publisher and Site contributor, sent the website for indexing, verified the newest version is indexed, but the Google listing is still being shown with the "Company:" before.

Note the issue ONLY regards the front page. All other pages titles are shown correctly in Google!

I really hope you guys can help!

[qwalk]

Can anyone please help?

[Rolf]

When the website is being listed by Google, the front page's title in Google is displayed like this (with the "Company" being the name of the site/company): "Company: ($pagetitle} of the front page".

[paulbaker]

Sounds like SEOTools2 is doing what you expect it to (and it works well for me too).

So I would say this is a Google issue not a CMSMS issue? You might have better luck raising this issue in something like this forum:
http://productforums.google.com/forum/# ... webmasters

Sounds odd though, I always thought Google used the <title> text for its links.

[qwalk]

When the website is being listed by Google, the front page's title in Google is displayed like this (with the "Company" being the name of the site/company): "Company: ($pagetitle} of the front page".

Well that was just a typo in the post, and have nothing to do with the configuration whatsoever.

Let's say that my default home page has the title: Car Rental, and my company name is CheapCarRental (Site Name, Site Publisher, Site Contributor). The SEOtools page title text field settings value is just {title}.

A search result on Google is not just showing the page title as I asked it too, but in this particular example (default home page) is showing "CheapCarRental: Car Rental". I don't want the company name to be listed.

[qwalk]

Sounds like SEOTools2 is doing what you expect it to (and it works well for me too).

So I would say this is a Google issue not a CMSMS issue? You might have better luck raising this issue in something like this forum:
http://productforums.google.com/forum/# ... webmasters

Sounds odd though, I always thought Google used the <title> text for its links.

Okay. I'll give that a try.

I thought that too, but this has now been happening for a couple of websites I manage. I don't know if it may have any association with Google Places or Webmaster Tools because they are connected to the website. Very odd.

Even when removing the company name completely from all CMSMS/SEOTools2 settings, it is still showing. Don't make sense.

[paulbaker]

Just found this question whilst looking for something else:
http://productforums.google.com/forum/# ... wF8tm-OShs
It's very similar to your question above.

Read this link posted in the answer:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/a ... 5624?hl=en

Basically Google does not necessarily use your <title> if it thinks it can present the info in a more useful way to the searcher or if it thinks you are keyword-stuffing.

[psy]

Glad you're enjoying SEO2.

Very odd Google behaviour.

Some suggestions that may or may not work:

1. Eval the {$pagetitle} var in the SEO2 "Page title & Meta information" tab under "Page title" and "Page Meta title" fields, eg: {eval var=$pagetitle}.

2. In your template, put {SEOTools2|replace:'{$pagetitle}':$pagetitle}

No guarantees.

Actually my money would be on Option 2. My reasoning is CMSMS constructs the page template as expected including placeholders for variables, eg {$pagetitle}. The first thing it does when the page is called on the frontend is {process_pagedata}. This tag sits outside the <__html> tag.

If Google is ignoring anything above/below the <__html> tag, no $vars will be evaluated. Thing to do is ensure that the variable is evaluated BEFORE
it gets to Google. This can be done with Option 2 as it's done in the PHP module call before the raw template text is output.

Of course that could be a lot of baloney but anything is worth a try.

[qwalk]

Just found this question whilst looking for something else:
http://productforums.google.com/forum/# ... wF8tm-OShs
It's very similar to your question above.

Read this link posted in the answer:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/a ... 5624?hl=en

Basically Google does not necessarily use your <title> if it thinks it can present the info in a more useful way to the searcher or if it thinks you are keyword-stuffing.

I've read the support page, and I've tried to change small things in the title, such as puttin in a comma , or a hyphen - . After a cpl. of hours Google is showing the small changes, but still with the Company: infront of it. So annoying!

I've even tried to change SEO tools Page title settings to {$sitename} | {title}, and it's still not showing the Page title and Site name in the right order. Still just the Company: Page title.

[qwalk]

Glad you're enjoying SEO2.

Very odd Google behaviour.

Some suggestions that may or may not work:

1. Eval the {$pagetitle} var in the SEO2 "Page title & Meta information" tab under "Page title" and "Page Meta title" fields, eg: {eval var=$pagetitle}.

2. In your template, put {SEOTools2|replace:'{$pagetitle}':$pagetitle}

No guarantees.

Actually my money would be on Option 2. My reasoning is CMSMS constructs the page template as expected including placeholders for variables, eg {$pagetitle}. The first thing it does when the page is called on the frontend is {process_pagedata}. This tag sits outside the <__html> tag.

If Google is ignoring anything above/below the <__html> tag, no $vars will be evaluated. Thing to do is ensure that the variable is evaluated BEFORE
it gets to Google. This can be done with Option 2 as it's done in the PHP module call before the raw template text is output.

Of course that could be a lot of baloney but anything is worth a try.

Thanks for your input. I'll try option 2 and send my site to Index to see if it has any impact - if not I'll give option 1 a try. Just to understand option 2 correctly, do I just need to put "{SEOTools2|replace:'{$pagetitle}':$pagetitle}" somewhere in the template? NOT replacing it with the {SEOTools2} tag? Or do I?

[psy]

Add the replace modifier to your existing SEO2 tag.

[qwalk]

So a little update!

I managed to solve the problem by editing the front page template (which was the ONLY page Google didn't show the right title on), and leave out {SEOTools2} from the head data in the front page template.

Manually I entered the title and description and sent the page to Google for indexing.

The problem is now solved. Google is now showing: "Title of the page | Company Name" instead of "Company Name: Title of the page" like it did before. All other pages are showing the title correct and are using {SEOTools2}.

I have NO idea what this issue was caused by or why. All I know is that it has SOMETHING to do with SEOTools2 since leaving it out worked. Also I've experienced this problem on multiple websites I've created.

I've read that Google have the right to change the title of a webpage, if using another title is best for their users. So apparently there is SOMETHING in the {SEOTools2} generated data, that Google don't like. But still strange its only an issue on the front page.