Edit the title formats for your pages to decide what shows in browser tabs or search engine results.

With SEO title formats, you can create a consistent structure for how your pages look in browser tabs, search engine results, and social posts linking to your content.

Tip: You can also add a favicon image that displays next to a page's title.

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Edit SEO title formats

Your site includes default title formats for your pages, homepage, and collection items. For more customization, you can change them by adding, reordering, and deleting information in each field.

To edit a title format:

For the variables, use any of these:

• %s - The site title
• %p - The page's SEO title (or page title if there is no SEO title)
• %i - The SEO title of an individual collection item like a blog post, product, or event (or the collection item's title if there is no SEO title)

You can also add custom text. For example, if you set your homepage title format to %s | Digital Branding Agency, your site title will always be followed by that text. This is a great way to optimize your title with keywords.

Page title format

The page title format applies to all pages except your homepage and collection items. By default, the page title format is Page Title — Site Name, using the variables %p and %s.

%p pulls in the SEO title for that page. If the page doesn't have an SEO title, it pulls in the page title instead. Because you set SEO titles at a page level, the text that appears in browser tabs and search results will differ for each page.

Example

A site called Healthy Living has a Blog Page with the SEO title Easy Vegan Recipes.

With the page title format %s - %p, "Healthy Living - Easy Vegan Recipes" will display in browser tabs when viewing the main Blog Page.

If the same site has an Events Page with the SEO title Upcoming Classes, that page will display as "Healthy Living - Upcoming Classes."

Homepage title format

The homepage title format sets how your homepage appears in browser tabs and search engine results. By default, it's your site title using the variable %s.

Homepages and the %p variable

When you make a page your homepage, its SEO title field disappears from page settings. However, you can still include the %p variable in the homepage title format. The text it pulls into browser tabs and search results depends on whether or not you assigned an SEO title to the page before making it your homepage:

• If your homepage previously had an SEO title, %p pulls in that title. To change this, make a different page your homepage temporarily, change the SEO title on the desired homepage, then set the page back as your homepage.
• If your homepage never had an SEO title, %p pulls in the page title.

To set completely different text, add custom text to the title format field rather than a variable.

Note: The preview in the SEO tab of your homepage's page settings may show the page title rather than the SEO title.

Collection item title format

The collection item title format controls how collection items like blog posts, products, events, or album tracks look in browser tabs and search engine results. By default, the collection item title format is Item Title — Site Name, using the variables %i and %s.

Example

The Healthy Living site has a blog post titled Healthy vegan dinners for one.

With the collection item title format %i - %s, "Healthy vegan dinners for one - Healthy Living" will display in browser tabs.

The site also has an event called Meal Planning Workshop. The event will display as "Meal Planning Workshop - Healthy Living" in browser tabs.

Tips for writing title formats

The order of information in title formats is up to you, and it'll depend on what parts of your brand or content you want to emphasize first in browser tabs or search engine results.

Prioritize your site or brand

To have your site title or company name be the first words in a browser tab or search results link, place your site title (%s) in the beginning of the title format.

This is a good choice for businesses or companies with brand recognition, where visitors will be searching for your brand by name.

Prioritize the page or item

To have the title of the page, product, or blog post be the first words in a browser tab or search results link, place the page SEO title (%p) or item SEO title (%i) at the beginning of the title format. This places more importance on the content of the page rather than the entire site.

For example, bloggers who want to have their blog posts ranked higher in search results might put the item SEO title (%i) first in the collection item title format. This is also a good strategy if you expect that visitors will open your site's pages in many browser tabs at once. Having the page or item title first prevents the tabs from all looking the same.