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I was on Infinium's (web/app design agency) blog and noticed that when I clicked on another tab in my browser, the title tag changed from "Best Rails image uploader..." (the title of the post) to "Come back, we miss you!".

From an SEO standpoint, I imagine putting JavaScript in metadata would be detrimental; for UX however, I think it could be worth testing.

Does anyone know if dynamic title tags help/hurt SEO?

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    This just a cheap JavaScript trick that has nothing to do with search. This is a user triggered event and therefore should not be seen by a search engine. Cheers!!
    – closetnoc
    Commented Jul 12, 2018 at 13:55
  • @closetnoc: cheap JavaScript trick ... As 'clever' as dynamic Tabs sounds, I agree with your notion here. As for this having nothing to do with search, John Mueller seems to state otherwise via my answer's referenced article. Are you aware of more recent updates on the matter?
    – Craig
    Commented Jul 12, 2018 at 14:45
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    @Craig Title tags and the like being changed via JavaScript is fair game, however, since this is an event associated with changing tabs, I would not bet this event would be avaible to the render engine since it is not a browser. As well, google does not seek to trigger all user events and I doubt it would in this case. I am sure no one knows for sure without experimentation.
    – closetnoc
    Commented Jul 12, 2018 at 15:29
  • @closetnoc: I would be interested to hear of anyone using this to their advantage. Personally, I do not see any great value in this approach. In fact, I think it could cause more harm than good. Not from an SEO standpoint but from a user experience perspective, as highlighted in my answer.
    – Craig
    Commented Jul 12, 2018 at 15:50
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    @Craig I have only seen this trick once or twice ever. If something is good for SEO you would see eventual adoption rather quickly dispite the few SEO sites available with very little advice and opinion making it highly unlikely that any idea would travel any distance. (Humor) Cheers mate!!
    – closetnoc
    Commented Jul 12, 2018 at 15:56

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I have never actually come across this before. Then again, I haven't been proactively looking.

I have had a quick look and came across the below quote, in one of John Mueller's Google+ Blog Posts:

Google supports the use of JavaScript to provide titles, description & robots meta tags, structured data, and other meta-data. When using AMP, the AMP HTML page must be static as required by the spec, but the associated web page can be built using JS/PWA techniques. Remember to use a sitemap file with correct "lastmod" dates for signaling changes on your website.

I am not hugely familiar with JavaScript but after looking at the Source Code, there is static content within the <title> Tags. As such, I would assume this is the information used from an SEO standpoint. I could be wrong on this, if it turns out JavaScript is able to manipulate Tags prior to rendering.

In terms of its actual use, I do not see how it would be useful. Following on from @closetnoc's Comment, I feel this is just a case of being fancy for the sake of being fancy. Showing off in other words! :-)

Scenario:

Say you have a user jumping between Tabs, they then look for the Tab they were originally on but it has changed. You would run the risk of the user thinking it was a Pop Up etc and simply close the Tab.

It is also known that Fraudsters implement JavaScript as to cloak a website when a visitor is jumping between Tabs. Whilst not familiar on its entire implementation, I am aware it does exist.

The collective point being ... Don't risk confusing people, or doubting your site's credibility, for the sake of something fancy in the Tab.

Statistics:

I would be interested to see any statistics on this, however. Has anyone implemented this approach and noticed any tangible benefits?

Side note: Don't forget, anyone with any JavaScript Blocking software, such as Ad Blocking Software, won't see this anyway!

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