og:title vs <title> — what's the difference, and do you need both

Why it matters

A <title> optimized for search ("12-Month Term Deposit Rates Australia — Compare 40+ Banks | RatePulse") is stuffed with keywords and a site name suffix, which reads fine in a search result but clutters a social card, where there's less room and a different audience — someone who already clicked through from a feed, not someone scanning search results. If you only set <title> and skip og:title, most platforms fall back to reusing it anyway, which is fine as a default — the point is you have the option to write something punchier for the share context without touching your SEO title.

How to fix it

• If you're not sure, skip og:title entirely — every platform falls back to <title>, so it's a safe default, not a missing feature.
• Set og:title separately only when your SEO title is long, keyword-stuffed, or has a site-name suffix that doesn't read well as a headline.
• Keep og:title short — under ~60 characters displays cleanly on every platform without truncation.
• The same logic applies to meta description vs og:description — write the SEO one for search intent, the OG one for scroll-stopping on social, and let it fall back if you don't need the split.