Are title tags still relevant for SEO?

Short answer

Yes. The title is still the strongest single on-page signal and usually the headline people click in the results. Google rewrites titles it finds unhelpful, which is a reason to write better ones, not to stop caring. There is no length limit, only a display cut-off, so put what matters first.

This question comes up because Google started rewriting a noticeable share of titles a few years ago, and some people concluded titles no longer mattered. The opposite is closer to the truth. The rewriting shows Google cares a great deal about what the headline says, enough to replace yours when it thinks it can do better.

What the title does

The title element is the text in the <title> tag in a page’s head. It does two jobs. It tells Google, in one line, what the page is about, which makes it one of the strongest signals you control. And it is the main source for the blue headline in the search results, which is the single biggest influence on whether someone clicks.

Almost every page on the web has one. The HTTP Archive found 98.5% of pages had a title element in 2025. So the advantage is not in having one. It is in having a good one.

Why Google rewrites titles

Google calls the clickable headline a title link and says it builds it from several sources. Its documentation lists the title element, the main visual title on the page, heading elements, og:title, other prominent text, anchor text on the page and text in links pointing to the page. It says it may generate an improved title when it detects a problem: titles that are half empty, obsolete, inaccurate, stuffed with keywords, or the same across many pages.

So when Google replaces your title, it is usually telling you something. Look at what it chose instead. Often it picks the H1, or the text other sites use when linking to you. That is a hint about what Google thinks the page is.

Does length matter?

Not in the way most checklists say. Google’s documentation states there is no limit on how long a title element can be. The title link is truncated in results as needed, typically to fit the device width. So a long title is not penalised; it is just cut off on screen.

The practical rule follows from that: put the words that matter most at the front, so they survive the cut on a phone. Whether the total is fifty-eight or seventy characters matters much less than whether the first forty make sense on their own.

How to write a good title

Lead with the subject. The thing someone searched for, in the words they would use, near the start.
Be specific. “Roof repair in Tulsa: storm damage and insurance claims” beats “Roofing services | Company name”.
Make it true to the page. A title promising something the page does not deliver earns a click and a fast return to the results.
Make each one unique. Identical titles across a site are one of the triggers for rewriting.
Put the brand last, if at all. On the homepage, lead with it. Elsewhere, it uses space the subject needs.

Where titles go wrong

Stuffing. “Plumber, Plumbing, Plumbers, Emergency Plumber, 24 Hour Plumber”. It reads as spam to people and to Google, and it is one of the clearest triggers for a rewrite.

Boilerplate. The same template across hundreds of pages with one word changed. On location and product pages especially, it gives Google nothing to tell the pages apart.

Internal language. A service page titled with the name the business uses internally rather than the term customers search for. I see this constantly on law firm and clinic sites.

Mismatched H1. A title that says one thing and a heading that says another sends a mixed signal and often leads Google to pick the heading.

Where titles make the biggest difference

Pages ranking between positions four and fifteen for a query you care about. A better title can lift the click-through rate at the same position, and better clicks often help the ranking. Check Search Console for pages with high impressions and a low click rate; those are usually the pages where the title is not doing its job.

Category, service and location pages, too, where templated titles are most common and a specific one stands out immediately.

How to test a change

Change titles on a handful of pages, note the date, and compare impressions, clicks and average position over the following four weeks against the four weeks before. Do not change titles sitewide on a hunch; if results fall, you will not know which change caused it.

And if Google keeps rewriting a title you have improved, read its replacement as feedback rather than an insult. Sometimes it has spotted that your heading is the clearer description, and the simplest fix is to make the title and the heading agree.

If your pages rank but do not get clicked, or Google keeps rewriting your titles, I fix titles and headings at template level as part of my technical SEO work.