Update:

As pointed out to me in the SEW Forums, that title may look like an exact match of the AdWords ad, but it’s also an exact match of a DMOZ/ODP listing for my wife’s site. I have no recollection of ever submitting her site there, but maybe someone added it on their own.

Off to add the NOODP…case closed.

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How’s this for two steps forward, one step back?

After all the hype about the big 3 search engines agreeing to support the NOODP tag, and about Yahoo agreeing to support a No Yahoo Directory tag, Google is using SERP titles from AdWords listings rather than the page title in some cases.

Check this out:

That’s the regular SERP for a search on my wife’s domain name, CariMcGee.com.

This… is the SERP when you do a search on her name, Cari McGee:

Are you kidding me??? That SERP title is coming from her Local Business Ad in the AdWords system, which you can see here:

They give you a measly 25 characters for an AdWords ad, and now they’re using it as your headline in the regular SERPs? How does that “improve the user experience”? Better question: How does that improve the advertiser experience? They’re the ones footing the bill for … what? … 98% of Google’s revenue?

Time for a NOADWORDS tag, I say. Who’s with me?

[tag]google, adwords, seo[/tag]