Title tag (HTML title element)
The <title> element sets the name of a page. Browsers show it in tabs, bookmarks and history.
Search engines usually use it as the clickable headline of the result, and social platforms often
fall back to it when a link is shared without Open Graph tags.
<head>
<title>Running Shoes for Flat Feet: How to Choose | Example Store</title>
</head>
Why it matters
The title is often the first thing people read about your page in search results, and they decide whether to click based on it. It is also one of the clearest signals of what the page is about. A missing or generic title (“Home”, “Untitled”, the same title on every page) makes the page harder to find and less likely to be clicked.
Google may rewrite a title when it thinks another text from the page describes it better, but your
<title> is the main source it uses, especially when it is descriptive and accurate.
What we check
We read the first <title> element inside <head>, collapse whitespace, and count its characters:
| Result | Title |
|---|---|
| Pass | present, 10 to 60 characters |
| Needs attention | present, but shorter than 10 or longer than 60 characters |
| Fail | missing or empty |
Why these limits:
- Under 10 characters is rarely enough to describe a page; it usually means a placeholder or just the brand name.
- Over 60 characters is likely to be cut off in search results. Search engines truncate by pixel width, not by character count, so 60 is a rule of thumb: a title with many wide letters can be cut earlier, a narrow one later.
A title placed outside <head>, for example in the body, is not detected.
How to write a good title
Lead with the page topic. Put the words that describe this specific page first, and the brand name (if any) at the end, where truncation does least harm:
<title>Lighthouse Performance Score Explained | Example</title>
Make every title unique. Each page should have its own title that sets it apart from similar pages. Product pages, category pages and articles all need distinct titles. Paginated pages can add “Page 2” and so on.
Describe, do not stuff. Write for people. A list of keywords separated by commas looks like spam and is more likely to be rewritten by the search engine.
Match the content. The title should describe what the visitor will actually find. Titles that promise something the page does not deliver lose clicks over time.
Keep the home page specific too. “Home” or the bare brand name wastes the most visible title on the site. Say what the site does: “Example: Handmade Leather Bags”.
How to fix common cases
Missing title. Add one <title> to the <head> of every page template. In most CMSs this comes
from an SEO title field or from the page name; check that the theme actually outputs it.
The same title everywhere. Usually a template that hard-codes the site name. Change it to use the page’s own title, followed by the site name:
<title>{pageTitle} | Example</title>
Title set by JavaScript. Single-page apps sometimes set document.title only after the app runs.
Search engines that render JavaScript may pick it up, but other tools and social previews will not.
Render the title on the server whenever possible.
Too long. Remove filler words, repeated brand names and long taglines. Keep the most important words within the first 60 characters.