Title tags and meta descriptions: writing for click-through when Google rewrites half of them

"Why is Google showing a different title than the one we set" is a question that comes up on most SEO engagements. Google has rewritten titles for years and stepped it up noticeably in 2021; third-party analyses since have consistently found a large share of titles get changed, and meta descriptions get rewritten far more often than that. That changes how to think about both - but not whether they're worth the effort.

Why Google rewrites them

For titles, the usual triggers are: yours is too long and truncates, it's keyword-stuffed or repetitive ("Widgets | Blue Widgets | Widgets Shop"), it's boilerplate that ignores what the page is about, or it just doesn't match the query well and Google finds a better fit in your H1 or in the anchor text pointing at the page. For descriptions, Google composes a snippet from whichever passage best matches each individual query - so the same page legitimately shows different descriptions for different searches.

What titles are still worth doing well

• The title is the strongest on-page relevance signal you fully control - the page's primary phrase should be in it, near the front.
• When Google keeps yours, it's your pitch in the results; a vague title loses clicks even at position one.
• A good title is usually the basis for any rewrite - Google trims it or swaps the separator rather than inventing something new.

Writing ones Google is more likely to keep

• Stay roughly within the ~60-character display width so it doesn't get truncated.
• Lead with the specific topic or phrase; put the brand name at the end, or drop it entirely on deep pages.
• One clear idea - no repetition, no lists of keywords separated by pipes.
• Match the dominant search intent for the page and align it with the H1; a large title/H1 mismatch is an open invitation to rewrite it.

What descriptions are still worth doing

Assume the description won't be shown verbatim, and write a good one anyway - as ad copy for the results page. When it does get used, which is more common for brand and navigational queries and for long-tail pages, a specific, benefit-led sentence that uses the searcher's language earns the click. Leave it blank and Google pulls a random passage that often reads badly out of context. Write one unique description per page, and never duplicate them across the site.

Reviewing them at scale

1. Export every title and description; flag the duplicates, the missing ones, and anything past the display width.
2. Check that each title contains its primary phrase, near the front.
3. Compare each title against the page's H1 and its actual intent, and fix the mismatches before anything cosmetic.
4. For your important pages, run the target query and look at what Google is currently showing instead - then adjust the page, not just the tag.

The SEO Analyzer pulls the title, meta description, and H1s - with their character lengths - straight out of a page's HTML, so you can spot truncation, duplication, and title/H1 mismatch without running a full site crawl.

You can't stop Google rewriting a title. You can make your version the most useful one available for the query, which is the version it tends to keep.

Why does Google show a different title than the one I set?

Google replaces a title when it thinks yours won't help someone scanning results - usually because it's too long and truncates, repeats keywords, is generic boilerplate, or doesn't match the page or query well. It then uses your H1 or on-page anchor text instead. A concise, specific, intent-matching title is the one most likely to be kept.