SEO: Why You Don’t Need To Include Brand Name In Title Tags Anymore

TL;DR:
You don’t need to include your brand or company name in every title tag by default. Google can display your site name separately in search results, so on many non-branded pages I’d rather use the available title space to describe the page and match search intent more precisely. Keep the brand when it adds useful context, recognition or relevance, but don’t include it simply because an old SEO template says every title should end with | Brand Name.

Why I changed my approach to brand names in title tags

One of the most important SEO elements, certainly in my opinion as a website optimisation consultant, is still the title tag.

It’s one of the clearest ways to describe what an individual page is about, and a well-written title can also help attract clicks from the search results even when you’re not ranking in position one.

Should you include your company name in your SEO title?

For years, I included the brand or company name in virtually every title tag I optimised.

It was standard SEO practice:

Primary Keywords | Brand Name

And there are perfectly reasonable arguments for doing it. A recognisable brand can build trust, reinforce who the result belongs to and potentially encourage a click.

But I no longer think your company name needs to be included in every page title by default.

One reason is simple: Google now displays a site name separately from the page’s title link in its search results.

That means you can potentially use the space available in your title to describe the individual page and match the user’s search intent, while still giving Google clear information about the website or brand the result belongs to.

That doesn’t mean brand names should never appear in title tags. There are situations where including the brand makes complete sense.

My point is that “add the company name to every SEO title” shouldn’t be an automatic rule anymore.

So why have I changed my approach?

Title tag space is valuable. If adding the company name makes the title longer without adding anything useful for that particular search, I’d rather use that space to describe the page more precisely.

Google doesn’t actually impose a fixed character limit on title tags. The familiar 50–60 character recommendation is really a practical guideline based on how much of a title is likely to be displayed in search results, rather than an SEO limit.

For me, the priorities are:

• Relevance: Make the title accurately describe the page and align with what the person is searching for.
• Useful specificity: Use the available space to communicate something meaningful about that particular page rather than automatically repeating the company name.
• Click appeal: Give searchers a reason to choose the result without resorting to keyword stuffing or generic boilerplate.

If the brand name contributes to those things, include it. If it doesn’t, I don’t think it needs to be there simply because an old SEO best-practice checklist says so.

Why does Google sometimes rewrite title tags?

Another reason I don’t think it’s worth obsessing over putting your brand name into every title tag is that Google doesn’t always use the title tag exactly as you’ve written it anyway.

Google automatically generates the title link it displays in search results and can use several sources to do this, including your <title> element, the main visible title on the page, headings and other prominent page content.

This means Google may rewrite a title, adjust repetitive wording or change how a site or brand name is presented if its systems determine that another title better represents the page.

So even if you religiously append | Brand Name to every title tag, there’s no guarantee that’s exactly how Google will display it in the SERPs.

Does Google already show your brand name in search results?

But this is the main reason I’ve changed my approach.

Google now has a separate place in the search result for the site name.

The site name can appear above the URL and title link, meaning Google can show searchers which website the result belongs to without you necessarily having to repeat that brand name in the title itself.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

For me, this changes the argument for automatically appending a company name to every title.

If Google is already displaying the site name separately, I’d rather use the title itself to communicate what that specific page is about — particularly when the brand name would otherwise take up a significant amount of the visible title.

Again, that doesn’t mean you should remove your brand from every title tag. But it does mean you don’t necessarily need the company name in the title just to make sure your brand is visible in the search result.

How do you tell Google your preferred site name?

You can give Google a clear signal about the site name you’d prefer it to use by adding WebSite structured data to your homepage.

Google specifically recommends WebSite structured data as the most important way to indicate your preferred site name.

A basic implementation looks like this:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
        "@context" : "https://schema.org",
	"@type" : "WebSite",
	"name" : "Dave Ashworth",
	"url" : "https://daveashworth.co/"
}
</script>

This should be added to the homepage, with the name property set to the site name you want Google to understand.

It’s important to note that this doesn’t guarantee Google will display that exact site name. Google uses the structured data alongside other signals when determining what appears in the search results.

But it gives Google an explicit indication of your preferred site name — and means you don’t need to rely on repeatedly putting the company name into every page title just to communicate which site the result belongs to.

When should you include your brand name in a title tag?

There are still plenty of situations where I would include the brand or company name in a title tag.

The obvious example is the homepage, where the brand itself is usually central to the page and often part of what people are searching for.

I’d also keep it where the brand adds useful context or recognition to the result. If somebody knowing who created the page could genuinely influence whether they click it, the brand name is doing a job rather than simply taking up space.

The same applies to pages targeting branded searches, where removing the company name could actually make the title less relevant to the query.

What I wouldn’t do is apply the same rule automatically across every service page, product page, category page and article on a website.

The question isn’t “should every SEO title contain my company name?” It’s “does including my company name make this particular title more useful?”

If you include the company name, should it come first or last?

Again, I don’t think there needs to be a sitewide rule.

For a page targeting a non-branded service, product or informational search, I’d generally lead with the subject of the page and put the brand afterwards if I decide to include it:

Primary Page Topic | Brand Name

For a homepage or a page where the brand itself is central to the search intent, putting the company name first can make more sense.

The order should reflect what the page is about and what the person searching is most likely looking for – not a template that happens to be applied to every title on the site.

Do you need your company name in every page title?

No – and that’s really the point I’m making.

I don’t think removing your brand name from title tags is an SEO tactic in itself, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend stripping it from every page simply for the sake of it.

But I also don’t think including your company name in every title should be treated as an SEO requirement.

Google can display your site name separately in the search results, it may generate a different title link from the one you’ve provided, and on many non-branded pages the available title space can be better used describing what that specific page offers.

My approach now is simple: if the brand adds something useful to the title, keep it. If it doesn’t, don’t include it just because that’s how you’ve always done it.

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