Title tags that are missing, duplicated or too long

Give every page exactly one title tag, inside its head, that says what that page is about in the words people search for. Make each title unique to its page and put the important words first. SERPCompass flags titles over 60 characters, which are often cut off in search results, and under 30, which rarely say enough. Most site builders and SEO plugins give each page a title field.

Last updated 28 October 2026, when every step was checked against the vendor's documentation.

Why it matters

Google builds the clickable headline of a search result, which it calls the title link, automatically from several sources, and the page's <title> element is the first one it lists. When a title is missing words, out of date, inaccurate or repeated across pages, Google says it may build the headline from other text on the page instead.

The title also names the page in browser tabs, bookmarks and history. The HTML standard asks for titles that identify the page even out of context, so pages that share one title look interchangeable everywhere they are listed.

Length is a display question, not a rule. Google says there is no limit on how long a <title> element can be, and it shortens title links as needed to fit the device's width. SERPCompass flags titles over 60 characters because longer ones are often cut off in results, and under 30 because a very short title rarely tells the page apart from others. Both numbers are our thresholds, not Google's.

The HTML standard allows no more than one <title> element per page. A second one appears when two things on the page each write a title, such as a theme that hard-codes one and a plugin that adds its own. Google does not document which one it uses, so leave only one.

The audit findings this guide fixes: Missing page title; Duplicate page titles; Title longer than 60 characters; Title shorter than 30 characters; More than one <title> element.

Find every page with this problem

Run the free scan on your domain. It reads the title of every page it crawls and shows your most urgent findings with the number of pages each affects; the Gap Report and a SERPCompass workspace list the affected pages themselves. To check one page by hand, open it in a browser, view the page source and search for <title: there should be exactly one match, inside the <head>.

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How to fix it on your platform

Meta descriptions, and the og:title that social networks show when your page is shared, are separate fields and not covered here.

WordPress (no SEO plugin)

Edit the title at the top of the post or page editor and update it. WordPress writes the <title> as the post title, a hyphen and your site title.
Set the site title, and the tagline the home page title adds to it, in Settings > General, then click Save Changes.
Check that your theme lets WordPress write the title. A classic theme does this with add_theme_support( 'title-tag' ) in its functions.php, called from the after_setup_theme hook; block themes get a title from WordPress without it.
If the theme also prints its own <title> in a template such as header.php, the page has two titles. Remove the theme's own line in a child theme, so the next theme update does not bring it back.

Sources: wp_get_document_title() (WordPress developer reference); Settings General screen (WordPress documentation); add_theme_support() (WordPress developer reference); Title tags in 4.1 (Make WordPress Core); _block_template_render_title_tag() (WordPress developer reference); Child themes (WordPress theme handbook).

WordPress with Yoast SEO

Open the post or page in the editor.
Open the Yoast SEO sidebar with the Yoast icon at the top right of the screen, or scroll to the Yoast SEO meta box below the content.
Open Search appearance and type the title into the SEO title field. The bar under the field turns orange or red when Yoast judges the title too long.
Save or update the post.
To change the template every post, page or the homepage uses by default: in the Yoast SEO menu, click Settings, then Content types, choose Homepage, Posts or Pages, edit the SEO title under Search appearance and click Save changes.

Sources: How to use the search appearance preview in Yoast SEO (Yoast); How to change SEO title and meta description templates in Yoast SEO (Yoast).

WordPress with Rank Math

Open the post or page in the editor and click the Rank Math icon at the top right of the screen; the General tab opens.
Click Edit Snippet and type the title into the title field of the preview.
Watch the length bar: Rank Math shows the title's width in pixels and turns the bar red when it judges the title too long or too short.
Save or update the post.
To change the default patterns, open Rank Math's Titles and Meta settings from the WordPress menu and edit Single Post Title under Posts, Single Page Title under Pages, or Homepage Title.
If your theme does not support WordPress's title tag, Global Meta in the same settings shows a Rewrite Titles option; turning it on makes Rank Math write the title into the page's head itself.

Sources: General tab in the meta box (Rank Math); Titles and Meta options and settings (Rank Math).

Shopify

In your Shopify admin, go to Products and click the product.
In the Search engine listing section, click the pencil icon.
Type the title into the Page title field (Shopify accepts up to 70 characters) and click Save.
For a page, go to Online Store > Pages, click the page, click Edit website SEO in the Search engine listing preview section, fill in Page title and click Save.
For the home page, go to Online Store > Preferences, enter the title in the Social sharing image and SEO section and click Save.

Sources: Adding and updating products (Shopify Help Center); Adding keywords for SEO to your Shopify store (Shopify Help Center).

Wix

Open your site in the editor and click Pages & Menu on the left.
Click the More Actions icon next to the page and choose SEO basics.
Type the title into the Title tag (title in search results) field.
Click Publish at the top right of the editor.

Source: Adding SEO title tags and meta descriptions to your pages (Wix Help Center).

Squarespace

In the Pages panel, hover over the page and click the gear icon beside its title.
Open the SEO tab, type the title into the SEO Title field and click Save. With no SEO title, Squarespace uses the page title.
For a blog post or event, open its page, hover over the item and click Edit (on version 7.1, then the gear icon at the top right); for a product, double-click it. Then use the SEO tab the same way.
The home page has no SEO title of its own: its title follows a title format. Open the SEO/AI Visibility panel and click SEO Settings (on version 7.0, the SEO appearance panel), choose the Home, Pages or Items tab under Search Appearance, edit SEO Title Format and click Save. %s is your site title, %p the page's SEO title and %i a collection item's.

Sources: Editing page titles (Squarespace Help Center); Change how page titles appear in search engines, browser tabs, and social shares (Squarespace Help Center).

Webflow

In the Designer, open the Pages panel and open the page's Page settings.
Under SEO settings, type the title into the Title tag field.
For a Collection template page, such as blog posts, build the title from Collection fields in the same SEO settings, so each item gets its own title.
Publish the site: the new title is not live until you do.

Source: Add SEO title and meta description (Webflow Help Center).

Plain HTML

Put one <title> element inside the <head> of every page, and nowhere else.
Write text only inside it: the element holds text, not other tags.
If your pages share a template, pass each page's own title into it rather than printing one title on every page.
If a page has two <title> elements, delete one: the HTML standard allows no more than one per page.

Sources: The title element (HTML Standard, WHATWG); Influencing your title links in search results (Google Search Central).

Examples

Bad
```
<title>Home</title>
```
Vague: Google names "Home" as a descriptor to avoid. It says nothing about the business or the page.
Bad
```
<title>Plumber | plumber Coimbatore | best plumber | cheap plumber</title>
```
The same word four times. Google says there is no reason for the same words to appear several times.

Bad

/services/plumbing/  <title>Services | Corner Plumbing</title>
/services/drains/    <title>Services | Corner Plumbing</title>

Two pages, one title: in results they look interchangeable.

Bad

<head>
  <title>Corner Plumbing</title>
  ...
  <title>Drain cleaning | Corner Plumbing</title>
</head>

Two <title> elements on one page. Keep the second, specific one and delete the other.

Good
```
<title>Emergency plumber in Coimbatore, 24 hours | Corner Plumbing</title>
```
What the page offers and where, first; the site name last, after a delimiter, as Google suggests. 59 characters.
Good
```
<title>Drain cleaning and unblocking | Corner Plumbing</title>
```
Its own title, so it cannot be mistaken for the plumbing page.

Common mistakes

Putting the brand first on every page, so every title starts the same way and the words that tell the pages apart are the ones that get cut off.
Leaving a default, such as the product name alone or a template's placeholder, on pages created in bulk.
Setting the title in an SEO plugin while the theme still prints its own, which leaves two <title> elements.
Changing the visible heading and expecting the title to follow: Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Yoast SEO and Rank Math each have a separate title field for search results.
Counting characters to the last one. Google shortens titles to fit the device's width, so the same title can fit on one screen and be cut on another: put the important words first instead.
Leaving last year in the title of a page you update every year. Google lists obsolete titles among the reasons it rewrites a title link.

Questions and answers

How long should a title tag be?

Google sets no fixed length. It says there is no limit on how long a title element can be, and it shortens title links as needed to fit the device's width. SERPCompass flags titles over 60 characters, because longer ones are often cut off in results, and under 30, because a very short title rarely describes the page. Put the words that matter first, so a cut costs only the end.

Why does Google show a different title from the one I wrote?

Google builds title links automatically from the page's title element and other sources, such as the main visible heading, other prominent text and the text of links pointing to the page. It says it may replace a title that is missing words, out of date, inaccurate or repeated across pages. Fixing those problems gives your own title the best chance, but Google decides.

Is the title tag the same as the H1?

No. The title element sits in the page's head and names the page in search results, browser tabs and bookmarks; the H1 is the main heading readers see on the page. They can say the same thing in different words. Google lists the main visible title among the sources it may use for a title link, so keep the two consistent.

Should I put my brand name in every title?

Google suggests a concise brand: on pages other than the home page, just the site name at the beginning or end of the title, separated by a delimiter such as a hyphen, colon or pipe. The home page title can say more about the site. We put the brand last, so the words that describe each page come first.

How long until Google shows my new title?

Google shows it after it crawls the page again, and it promises no time: crawling can take from a few days to a few weeks. For an important page, the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console can ask Google to crawl it again; asking repeatedly does not make it faster.

All guides
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Sources

Every step above was checked against these documents on 28 October 2026. Vendors change their menus; if a step no longer matches, the vendor's page is the authority.

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