This test checks whether page titles are used on the website correctly. A page title exclusively refers to the
<title> tag of a page, and nothing else.
Why do we test for this?
All pages should have a title - this is one of the most crucial elements of a page, and can be most easily seen
in the top left corner of your web browser's window.
The title is particularly important for several reasons:
- Search engines pay particular attention to the words in your page titles. They are emphasized more than the
text in your pages, and help optimize you for those words.
- Search engines display the titles (usually) as links in their results. The phrase that Google uses to link
to a webpage is nearly always the title of that page.
- Titles are used when users create bookmarks.
Titles should always be on every webpage, but it is important that the titles are varied and appropriate.
How do we test for this?
We examine the title for each page in turn, and check:
- Is there a title? (nearly every webpage will have one)
- Is the title meaningless? (e.g. "Untitled document")
- Is the title a web address (non descriptive and frowned on by search engines)
- Is the title too long?
- Is the title too complex?
What can I do about it?
Make sure each page includes a title in the head and that it is appropriate to the content.