Title tag separators by vertical (top-5 ranking pages, % of title tags)
| Vertical | Title tags | Pipe | Hyphen | Colon | No separator | Displayed title with no separator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apparel | 921 | 56.8% | 16.0% | 6.9% | 17.9% | 66.3% |
| Auto parts | 844 | 44.8% | 20.1% | 9.1% | 28.2% | 64.5% |
| Baby | 1,044 | 45.8% | 19.1% | 15.0% | 20.5% | 60.4% |
| Beauty | 900 | 50.7% | 20.2% | 14.1% | 19.7% | 65.8% |
| Dental and medical | 1,067 | 53.6% | 19.7% | 9.7% | 20.5% | 60.0% |
| DIY | 945 | 41.3% | 23.2% | 11.2% | 26.8% | 65.9% |
| Education | 1,040 | 47.7% | 40.1% | 11.2% | 21.7% | 51.5% |
| Electronics | 834 | 30.5% | 45.8% | 14.9% | 20.3% | 67.9% |
| Finance | 960 | 45.7% | 25.9% | 12.5% | 20.8% | 62.5% |
| Fitness | 950 | 39.5% | 20.4% | 18.7% | 24.2% | 66.6% |
| Gaming | 1,117 | 31.3% | 44.0% | 11.3% | 21.1% | 50.5% |
| Gardening | 930 | 42.3% | 27.7% | 9.2% | 22.2% | 62.8% |
| Health | 1,175 | 47.7% | 26.0% | 24.3% | 15.9% | 62.1% |
| Home | 922 | 47.9% | 18.7% | 9.7% | 20.7% | 63.6% |
| Home services | 885 | 47.8% | 21.6% | 9.6% | 23.1% | 62.7% |
| Insurance | 956 | 56.8% | 23.3% | 12.1% | 16.9% | 62.8% |
| Jewelry | 1,123 | 55.8% | 16.1% | 7.3% | 15.0% | 68.8% |
| Kitchen | 848 | 36.1% | 24.9% | 12.4% | 24.4% | 61.4% |
| Legal | 1,207 | 59.2% | 19.1% | 4.7% | 18.4% | 67.4% |
| Marketing | 1,148 | 30.8% | 33.6% | 12.5% | 27.4% | 53.0% |
| Outdoor | 953 | 49.3% | 16.3% | 9.8% | 20.5% | 66.4% |
| Parenting | 583 | 38.9% | 24.9% | 23.3% | 22.0% | 58.5% |
| Pets | 992 | 38.8% | 29.3% | 17.9% | 18.6% | 60.9% |
| Real estate | 914 | 57.7% | 31.8% | 6.8% | 13.1% | 63.7% |
| Recipes | 862 | 30.5% | 46.6% | 2.8% | 20.0% | 75.3% |
| Restaurants | 741 | 38.5% | 30.9% | 7.0% | 24.4% | 50.7% |
| SaaS comparisons | 1,189 | 60.0% | 42.6% | 11.9% | 13.6% | 49.4% |
| Software | 1,246 | 39.2% | 24.6% | 15.0% | 27.1% | 63.0% |
| Supplements | 1,073 | 38.6% | 21.2% | 20.2% | 22.5% | 65.0% |
| Travel | 930 | 44.2% | 30.5% | 8.6% | 21.2% | 62.7% |
Source: PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026. A title can contain more than one separator, so rows add to more than 100%.
Summary
Pipe, hyphen, colon or nothing at all? Picking a title tag separator is a small call that every site makes, and most advice on it is habit. We looked at what the pages that already rank on page one actually use, and what Google then shows in its results.
Of 29,299 top-5 ranking title tags, 45.3% use a pipe and 26.8% a spaced hyphen, while 20.8% use no separator at all. But the titles searchers see look very different: Google's displayed titles show no separator for 62.8% of top-5 results.
What we measured
We looked at 49,855 top-5 ranking pages for 10,019 US keywords in October 2026 and could read a title tag on 29,776 of them. The 29,299 title tags that were still readable on a second check later that month form the base for this study. We then compared them with the titles Google displayed for 50,079 top-5 results for the same searches.
We counted four separators: the pipe, the spaced hyphen, the colon and the en dash. Hyphen here means a hyphen with a space on each side, so hyphenated words do not count. A title can contain more than one separator, so the shares add to more than 100%. Each vertical has between 583 and 1,246 title tags.
Pipes are the most common separator
The pipe is the default choice on page one. 45.3% of the 29,299 ranking title tags use one, well ahead of the spaced hyphen at 26.8%. Colons appear in 12.0% of title tags and en dashes in 7.4%.
That leaves 20.8% of title tags with no separator at all, roughly one in five. These are likely single-phrase titles with no brand or subtopic split off, such as a plain product or article name.
45.3%
Share of 29,299 top-5 ranking title tags that use a pipe as a separator.
Google drops the separator from most displayed titles
The title tag is only half the story. In Google's displayed titles the picture flips: 62.8% of 50,079 top-5 results show no separator at all, because Google rewrites or trims the title.
When a title tag has a separator, Google keeps one in the displayed title only 45.0% of the time, across 23,191 pages. It also works the other way: when the title tag has no separator, 11.9% of displayed titles gain one, across 6,108 pages.
Google documents that it builds title links from several sources on the page, not only the title tag, so the separator a site picks is often not what searchers see.
The top result leans slightly more on pipes
The #1 result uses a pipe in 48.4% of title tags, against 44.4% for positions 2 to 5, across 6,285 and 23,014 pages. Its displayed title also keeps a separator slightly more often, 39.3% against 37.7%.
Both gaps are small. They describe what top results tend to do, not a ranking effect: there is nothing in this data to suggest a pipe helps a page rank.
Separator choice varies by vertical
Pipes dominate some verticals. They appear in 60.0% of SaaS comparison title tags, 59.2% of legal titles and 57.7% of real estate titles. At the other end, just 30.5% of recipe and electronics titles use a pipe, and hyphens are more common there: 46.6% of recipe title tags and 45.8% of electronics title tags use a spaced hyphen.
Displayed titles vary just as much. The share shown with no separator ranges from 49.4% of 1,189 SaaS comparison pages to 75.3% of 862 recipe pages. Recipe results lose their separator most often, likely because Google trims a trailing site name from many of them.
What this means for your site
There is no winning separator in this data. A pipe is the most common choice and a spaced hyphen is the next most common, and both are fine. Pick one, use it the same way across the site, and keep the important words before it.
Write titles that still work if Google cuts everything after the separator, since Google drops the separator from more than half of the titles that have one. Put the topic and the main search term first, keep the brand short at the end, and avoid stacking several separators in one title. Then check how your key pages actually appear in Google, not just what your title tag says.
Sources
- Google Search Central, influencing title links in Google Search: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/title-link
- PageSpeed Matters analysis of Google top-5 results for 10,019 US keywords, October 2026
Embed this research
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<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/title-tag-separators">Title Tag Separators: Pipe 45.3%, Hyphen 26.8% - PageSpeed Matters</a></p>
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common title tag separator?
The pipe. Of 29,299 top-5 ranking title tags, 45.3% use a pipe, 26.8% a spaced hyphen, 12.0% a colon and 7.4% an en dash, while 20.8% use no separator.
Should I use a pipe or a hyphen in my title tag?
Either is fine. Both are common on page one, and nothing in our data suggests one ranks better. The #1 result uses a pipe in 48.4% of title tags against 44.4% for positions 2 to 5, a small gap.
Does Google keep the separator in title tags?
Often not. When a title tag has a separator, Google keeps one in the displayed title only 45.0% of the time, and 62.8% of all displayed top-5 titles show no separator.
Title tags are one of the quickest on-page wins, and writing them to survive Google's rewrites keeps the words that matter in front of searchers. Need help with this? See our on-page SEO services.