More than one page title

What it is

The <head> of the page contains two or more <title> elements. The HTML standard allows only one  per document. A second title usually means two systems each print their own: a theme and an SEO plugin, two SEO plugins, or a page setting plus a title typed into custom head code.

Why it matters

Browsers take the first title for the tab and bookmarks. Google does not document which of several titles it uses for the title link, so the text in search results may be the default your theme generates rather than the one you wrote. It also means two places control the title, so an edit in your CMS can leave what searchers and AI assistants see unchanged.

How Asky checks it

Asky parses the page’s raw HTML the way a browser does and counts the <title> elements inside <head>. Titles set by JavaScript are not seen, and a <title> inside an SVG image is not counted. Two or more are reported, even when their text is identical, and the finding lists the text of each. The length checks and the same-as-H1 check read only the first title. A second title in <body> is not counted here: it is reported as page title outside the head. A <title> between </head> and <body> is moved into the head and counted here. If the first title is empty, page title missing or empty is reported as well.

Reported as an error with high severity.

How to fix it

1. Open the page source and find every <title> in the head. The text of each, listed in the finding, often shows where it comes from: a site name alone points to the theme, a formatted title to the SEO plugin.
2. Pick one system to own the title, usually the SEO plugin or the CMS’s SEO field, and switch off the other.
3. In WordPress, a theme that hardcodes <title> in its header template next to an SEO plugin is the usual cause: remove the hardcoded one. In Webflow, remove any <title> from the site or page custom code and use the page’s Title tag setting.
4. When the duplicate comes from a template, fixing the template clears every page that uses it.
5. Check that the title you keep is not empty and has 30 to 60 characters, so it raises no length finding.

Example

On https://example.com/blog/pricing-guide the theme and the SEO plugin both print a title:

<!-- Before -->
<head>
  <title>Example Co</title>
  <title>SaaS Pricing Guide: Models and Examples | Example Co</title>
</head>
 
<!-- After: the theme's title is switched off -->
<head>
  <title>SaaS Pricing Guide: Models and Examples | Example Co</title>
</head>

← Back to Page Title