Change how page titles appear in search engines, browser tabs, and social shares

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Change how page titles appear in search engines, browser tabs, and social shares

Last updated October 08, 2026 16:12

Set how your page titles appear across the internet.

Browser tabs, search engines, and social shares show your site and page SEO titles to let people know what they're about to click. Your SEO title formats control the text that represents your pages across the internet.

Video on changing SEO title formats

Watch a two-minute video on how to access and change your SEO title format settings.

The default SEO title formats

Your site has separate tile formats for your homepage, pages, and collection items like blog posts and products. Edit the SEO title format to pull in different fields or change the order. You can also edit your page and item SEO titles and site title text. By default, each page type shows:

  • Homepage: Site title
  • Pages: Page SEO Title — Site Title
  • Collection items: Item SEO Title - Site Title

Change your SEO title formats

Your site has separate title formats for your pages, homepage, and collection items. To edit a title format:

Select Home, Pages, or Items in the Search Appearance panel, then enter the SEO title format.

  1. Tap More, tap Marketing, then tap SEO.
  2. Edit the Title Format fields to include any of the supported variables.
  3. Tap Save.

Title format variables

You can add these variables:

  • %s - Your 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)
  • | [custom text] - Add custom text. For example, set your homepage SEO title format to %s | Digital Branding Agency to always show those keywords after your site title in search results.

Understand the page title format

The page title format applies to all pages except your homepage and collection items. The %p pulls in the page's SEO title, or page title if there is no SEO title.

Page SEO titles are unique

Because you set SEO titles at the page level, the text that appears in browser tabs and search results differ for each page.

Review an example

A site titled Healthy Living has a Blog Page with the SEO title Easy Vegan Recipes and a Calendar Page with the SEO title Upcoming Classes.

With the page title format %s - %p, browser tabs show:

  • When visitors open the blog page: “Healthy Living - Easy Vegan Recipes”
  • When visitors open the calendar page: “Healthy Living - Upcoming Classes”

Understand the homepage title format

The homepage title format applies to your site's homepage.

How to use the %p variable in the homepage title format

When you make a page your homepage, its SEO title field disappears from page settings, but you can still include the %p variable in the homepage title format.

The text it pulls into browser tabs, search results, and social shares depends on if you assigned an SEO title to the page before making it your homepage:

  • If your homepage had an SEO title before, %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.

Add custom text

To add custom text to the title format, enter | custom text goes here. For example, adding | Digital branding agency to your homepage SEO title format adds the text “digital branding agency” to your homepage's browser tab.

The preview might be different from what actually appears

The SEO tab of your homepage's page settings may show the page title instead of the SEO title. To confirm, save your changes and open your homepage in an incognito browser.

Review an example

A site titled Healthy Living teaches visitors about vegan nutrition. With the homepage title %s – | Learn vegan nutrition, when people visit the homepage, the browser tab reads: Healthy living – Learn vegan nutrition.

Understand the item title format

The item title format applies to collection items like blog posts, products, events, and album tracks.

Always include the %i variable

If you don’t include the %i variable in your collection item SEO title format, neither an SEO title nor an item title appears in browser tabs, even if you add an SEO title in the SEO tab of the page's settings. Search results may still show the item title. To show an item title or a custom SEO title in both browser tabs and search results, keep the %i variable in the collection item title format.

Always include the %p variable

If you don’t include the %p variable in your collection item SEO title format, neither an SEO title nor a page title appears in browser tabs, even if you add an SEO title in the SEO tab of the page's settings. Search results may still show the page title. To show a page's title or a custom SEO title in both browser tabs and search results, keep %p in the page title format.

The category or tag may also appear in browser tabs, search results, and social shares, depending on the page type. You can't change the title format for links to filtered content.

Review an example

A site titled Healthy Living has a blog page with an SEO title Blog posts and a blog post titled Healthy vegan dinners for one. The site has en events page with an SEO title Events and an event titled Meal planning workshop. With the item title format %i - %p - %s, browser tabs show:

  • When visitors open the blog post: Healthy vegan dinners – Blog posts – Healthy Living
  • When visitors open the event: Meal planning workshop – Events – Healthy Living

Tips for creating title formats

Consider the parts of your brand or content you want to emphasize first in browser tabs, search engine results, and social shares.

When to prioritize your brand name

Place your site title (%s) in the start of the title format to emphasize your brand name. This is a good choice for businesses with brand recognition, where visitors search for your brand by name.

When to prioritize the page or item title

Place the page SEO title (%p) or item SEO title (%i) at the start of the title format to emphasize a page, product, or blog post. This works well if:

  • You expect visitors to open your site's pages in many browser tabs at once.
  • You want each browser tab to look different.
  • You want search results to rank your blog posts or products higher than your homepage.

Add a browser icon

Display a favicon image next to a page's title in browser tabs.

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Change how page titles appear in search engines, browser tabs, and social shares