Key Takeaways
Including website names in title tags is not strictly required for search engine optimization, according to Google's John Mueller.
Having the site name helps with identification and branding, but there is no fixed rule.
Recently, John Mueller from Google discussed on Mastodon whether website owners should include their site names in the title tags of web pages.
Contrary to popular belief, Mueller said this should not be considered a strict search engine optimization requirement. While he prefers having the site name in the title, he clarified there is no definite rule about this.
Regarding concerns about the potential impact on search rankings, Mueller cautioned against assuming that removing the site name from title tags would necessarily improve search performance or user experience.
He recommended keeping the site name in the title, as it helps with easy identification and branding since Google often shows it above the title in search results.
In another instance, Mueller also said putting company or brand names in titles is totally acceptable.
Google has clarified before on another occasion that when it changes a page's title in search results, it does not mean there are quality issues with the website.
So, website owners should not blindly change their title tags to match Google's version.
I think we touched upon this briefly it's it still matters the title tag still works for ranking purposes. Changing it to what Google has selected from from my point of view doesn't automatically make sense because just because one algorithm selects something as a title doesn't mean it's a better title. But maybe there are cases where Google's algorithms have selected a better title and where it makes sense to kind of go in that direction. But there are certainly also situations where maybe Google's algorithms select the a worse title and where you want to keep the one that you had there or maybe you even want to improve the one that you had previously. So I wouldn't just blindly use what we show in search and say that's got to be the best title because Google's algorithms know everything better. And it's not the case that Google's algorithms know everything better.