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Why Google Shows the Wrong Title or Truncates Your Post Titles

28 threads Sep 10, 2025 Plugin → All in one seo

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It's a common and frustrating experience: you've carefully crafted the perfect SEO title for your WordPress post using All in One SEO, but Google displays something completely different in its search results. The title might be truncated with an ellipsis (...), start from the middle, or even be a different phrase altogether.

This issue, as seen in community reports, often leads website owners to question their SEO plugin. However, in the vast majority of cases, the root cause lies with Google's own processes, not the plugin itself.

Why Does This Happen?

Google's primary goal is to provide the most relevant and useful results to its users. To achieve this, its algorithm sometimes rewrites page titles it believes will perform better in search results. This is an automated process over which website owners and plugins have limited direct control. Common reasons for title rewriting include:

  • Relevance: Google may detect that the original title doesn't accurately reflect the main content of the page for a specific search query.
  • Keyword Stuffing: Titles that are overloaded with keywords can be flagged and rewritten.
  • Branding Overemphasis: If a title starts with a brand name but the search query is for a core topic, Google might reposition the brand name.
  • Length: While All in One SEO correctly outputs the full title tag, Google has pixel-width limits for how it displays titles in its search engine results pages (SERPs). Titles that are too long will be truncated.

How to Troubleshoot and Improve Your Titles

While you cannot force Google to use your chosen title, you can take steps to make it more likely that Google will use it or a close variation.

1. Verify All in One SEO's Output

First, rule out any technical issues on your end. View the page source of your post (right-click on the page and select 'View Page Source'). Search for the <title> tag. Confirm that the title tag output by All in One SEO is exactly what you intended. If it is, then the plugin is functioning correctly, and the issue is on Google's side.

2. Write Clear, Concise, and Relevant Titles

The best defense against title rewriting is to create high-quality titles from the start.

  • Put Important Keywords First: Place the most relevant keywords for the page content near the beginning of the title.
  • Avoid Lengthy Titles: Aim for titles under 60 characters to prevent truncation in SERPs. The All in One SEO snippet preview provides a handy counter for this.
  • Accurately Represent Content: Ensure your title is a direct and honest reflection of the page's content.
  • Avoid Repetition and Stuffing: Don't repeat the same keyword multiple times.

3. Be Patient and Monitor Search Console

After publishing a post or making a title change, it takes time for Google to recrawl and reindex the page. This process is not instantaneous. Use Google Search Console to monitor your performance and see which titles Google is actually displaying. If you've made a change, you can also use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console to request a reindex of that specific page.

When It Might Be a Plugin Setting

Although rare, unexpected title output can sometimes be traced to a specific configuration. If your title is wrong in the page source (not just on Google), check these common settings in All in One SEO > Search Appearance:

  • Title Separator: Ensure your global separator character (e.g., |, -, ») is set correctly.
  • Archives: Check the title settings for post archives or blog pages if the issue is occurring there, as they use a different template than single posts.

In one reported case, an update from a very old version of the plugin (v2.x) caused "Blog Archive" to appear in titles due to changes in how archive titles were handled. Ensuring your plugin is always up to date is the best way to avoid such legacy issues.

Conclusion

Seeing a rewritten title in Google search results can be alarming, but it is usually a sign of Google's algorithm at work, not a bug in All in One SEO. The plugin's role is to output the correct, optimized title tag on your page—which, according to community support interactions, it consistently does. By focusing on creating high-quality, user-focused titles and understanding the limits of Google's display, you can better align your SEO efforts with how search engines actually work.

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