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§ 2.1.2 ARTICLE
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SEO Panel · § 2.1.2 · How-to

Title tag on Squarespace: Page Title vs Site Title

Squarespace splits the title tag across four fields: Site Title (Settings > General), Page Title (Page Settings > SEO), Browser Tab Title (Page Settings > General), and a Title Format template (Settings > SEO Appearance) that joins Page Title and Site Title into the final <title> tag1. The 50-60 character budget refers to the joined title, not the Page Title alone — the Site Title appendage eats 15-25 characters, so the practical Page Title budget is shorter than the SERP rule suggests.

And Google rewrites the title tag in the SERP about 61% of the time4, regardless of what you set. The lever that matters is alignment between Page Title, H1, and primary query — not character-precise optimisation of any single field.

The four title fields, named

Squarespace splits what most platforms call 'the title tag' across four fields. Site Title lives at Settings > General and represents the brand. Page Title lives at Page Settings > SEO and represents the page-specific SEO string. Browser Tab Title lives at Page Settings > General and represents the literal browser tab label (often also the nav-menu label, depending on template). The Title Format template at Settings > SEO Appearance is the join rule that combines Page Title and Site Title into the rendered <title> tag. The four are independent — but the template ties them together at render.

The platform's documentation1 describes each field plainly but does not walk through the most common misuse: setting Browser Tab Title for SEO purposes, which on most templates also resets the navigation menu label. Set Browser Tab Title to the natural nav label (Home, About, Contact). Set Page Title to the SEO-optimised string with the primary query in it.

Site Title vs Page Title, in practice

Site Title is your brand: short, consistent across every page, set once at Settings > General. Page Title is what changes per page: descriptive of the page's primary topic, aligned to the query you're chasing, 30-50 characters once you account for the Site Title appendage. The template at Settings > SEO Appearance is the join rule that decides whether the final title reads 'Page Title | Site Title' (default) or 'Site Title | Page Title' or just 'Page Title' alone.

The right choice between those three templates depends on brand strength. A well-known brand (think Apple, Squarespace itself) benefits from putting brand first — users recognise it and click. A small-business or content site benefits from putting Page Title first, because the query phrase is what the user is looking for. The custom template option lets you mix in other tokens (Section, Item, etc.) but is overkill for most sites.

HTML The same Page Title rendered three ways via the template 
 <!-- Template: "Page Title | Site Title" (default) --> <title>Coastal palettes for low-light rooms | Hollis Coastal Interiors</title> <!-- Template: "Site Title | Page Title" --> <title>Hollis Coastal Interiors | Coastal palettes for low-light rooms</title> <!-- Template: "Page Title" only --> <title>Coastal palettes for low-light rooms</title>

The Title Format template, decoded

Settings > SEO Appearance > Title Format is the sitewide rule that controls how Squarespace joins Page Title and Site Title. The available variables are %s (Site Title), %p (Page Title), %c (Collection), and %i (Item) — the platform documentation lists them. The default '%p | %s' renders 'Page Title | Site Title'. Setting it to '%p' alone removes Site Title from the title entirely; Google may still add it from the URL in some cases.

The template is sitewide — you cannot override it per page. The consequence: if some pages have long Page Titles and others have short ones, you cannot tune the template separately for each. The workaround for an outlier page with a too-long combined title: shorten the Page Title for that page, or accept that Google may truncate or rewrite that particular title.

Character budget: 50-60 characters for the joined title

The SERP-display sweet spot for titles is 50-60 characters or roughly 600 pixels on desktop. Squarespace's own SEO checklist recommends the same range. The budget refers to the final rendered <title> tag — Page Title plus Site Title appendage via the template — not to Page Title alone. If your Site Title is 'Hollis Coastal Interiors' (24 characters), the template default appends ' | Hollis Coastal Interiors' (27 characters), leaving 23-33 characters for Page Title before truncation.

The 600-pixel rule5 is more accurate than the character count because letter width varies. A title of 60 characters of "M" widths gets truncated; 60 characters of "i" widths usually displays fully. The practical workflow: aim for 55 character total combined title, accept rendering variance up to 65, treat anything past 65 as risky for SERP display.

The 2026 title-tag landscape

61%

of titles Google rewrites in the SERP, per the canonical Zyppy study.

Zyppy · 2022-09
50-60

character target for the rendered <title> tag (after template joins Page + Site Title).

Squarespace Help · 2026
~600px

the desktop SERP truncation point, which depends on letter width as much as character count.

Moz Learn · 2025

The Browser Tab Title pitfall

Browser Tab Title is a separate field from Page Title. On most Squarespace 7.1 templates, Browser Tab Title also doubles as the navigation menu label — set it to the SEO-optimised string and the nav menu shows the long string instead of a clean 'Home' or 'About'. The fix is the field separation: Browser Tab Title = natural nav label (e.g. 'About'), Page Title = SEO-optimised string (e.g. 'About Hollis Coastal Interiors | Maine coastal interior design'). Squarespace's documentation calls out this split, but it's easy to miss when working through the SEO panel quickly.

The pitfall is so common that the platform now puts Page Title under the SEO tab and Browser Tab Title under the General tab specifically so owners don't conflate them. View source on any 7.1 page and find the <title> tag — that's what Page Title generates. Then look at the browser tab itself — that's what Browser Tab Title generates. They should differ on every non-trivial page.

Google rewrites about 61% of titles — and what that means for you

Zyppy's 2022 study of roughly 80,000 title links found Google rewrote 61.6% to some degree. Google's own documentation confirms the algorithm uses the page's <title> as the primary signal but draws from H1, anchor text, and on-page content when judged useful. The owner's lever: write a clean, accurate, query-aligned title; set the H1 on the page to the same phrasing or a close variant; let Google blend signals. Don't fight rewrites by re-testing daily — the rewrite is often equal or better than your version.

Google's title-link documentation3 names six common reasons the engine rewrites a title: the title is too long, too short, missing query terms, brand-stuffed, repeated boilerplate across pages, or judged inaccurate against page content. Each is fixable. The most actionable: ensure the title contains the primary query phrase, ensure the H1 matches or closely paraphrases, ensure the page content delivers on the title's promise.

The pattern that reduces title rewrites in field tests

The pattern: write Page Title as a direct, scannable, query-aligned phrase under 50 characters; set the on-page H1 to the same phrasing or a near-paraphrase; align the first paragraph (the AnswerBlock lead) to the same query. When title, H1, and lead paragraph all sing the same song, Google has fewer alternatives to choose from and rewrites less. When they conflict — say, an SEO title chasing one keyword and an H1 written for a different audience — Google picks whichever it judges most query-aligned, and the result is unpredictable.

An honest caveat: even the best alignment does not stop Google from rewriting. The rewrite rate has stayed near 60% across multiple post-2022 studies, regardless of input quality. The pattern reduces the rewrite from "Google replaced your title with something worse" to "Google made a minor tweak that's roughly equivalent". That's a real win — just not the win of "I set the title and Google kept it verbatim."

Keep reading · § 2.1.2