WordPress Posts

A trailing pipe in Google results usually means the HTML title Google indexed contains that separator (or Google reconstructed a title using parts that include one). Start by confirming where the pipe is coming from and then fix the generator.

View the raw page source (Ctrl+U) and look for the <title> tag. If the pipe is present there, the theme or a plugin is producing it. Search your theme and plugins for wp_title, document_title_parts, or any hard-coded <title> and for literal "|". If you don’t see the pipe in source, Google may be choosing a different title from the page; use Search Console URL Inspection to see what Google sees.

Common fixes:

• Make the theme/plugin not output an empty site/tagline part so the separator isn’t appended.
• For modern themes, filter document_title_parts to remove empty parts before WordPress joins them:

add_filter( 'document_title_parts', function( $parts ) {
    foreach ( $parts as $k => $v ) {
        if ( trim( $v ) === '' ) {
            unset( $parts[ $k ] );
        }
    }
    return $parts;
} );

• For older themes using wp_title(), a short trim filter will remove trailing separators:

add_filter( 'wp_title', function( $title ) {
    return rtrim( $title, " |" );
} );

Checklist:

• Check Settings → General for stray spaces in Site Title/Tagline.
• Inspect SEO plugin title templates and any global “separator” setting.
• Search all active plugins for title filters (some plugins hook into title output).
• Use a child theme and backup before editing theme files.
• After fixing, request reindexing in Google Search Console and re-submit your sitemap.

Background reading: WordPress title handling and hooks are documented in the Theme Handbook and reference pages, and Google’s guidance explains how it chooses page titles:

• Title tag (Theme Handbook)
• document_title_parts hook
• Google guidance on titles

Ties to this thread: @RachEv was correct to suspect a plugin; @zabalex and @geminideal were right that a separator is being appended; @datti’s note about Google sometimes choosing its own title is relevant when the pipe does not appear in the page source.