Why the SEO title you set is not always the one that shows.
You wrote a sharp title, hit update, and searched a week later. Google showed your H1 instead.
Yoast's SEO title writes one thing: your page's title element. It never touches what readers see on the page.
Your H1 speaks to someone who already arrived. Your title speaks to someone scanning ten blue links. They should differ.
Your title element is the strongest one. But headings, og:title, prominent text and anchor text are all fair game.
Half-empty. Obsolete. Inaccurate. Boilerplate. No clear main heading. Language mismatch. Repetitive site name.
Unique per page. Accurate to the content. One clear H1. Subject first, site name last where truncation is harmless.
Missing from your page source? That is a second SEO plugin, a theme printing its own tag, or a stale cache. Not Google.
The cheapest ranking work there is. No backlinks, no migration, one line each.