Page Titled
Success Criterion 2.4.2 (Level A)

Question

Do all pages on your website have unique descriptive page titles?

Why is this important

Having a descriptive title on each webpage or electronic document helps all users. Page titles are used to quickly identify where you are in the website, gain information regarding content on the page, and help differentiate web pages when multiple tabs are open. Having the same title used on multiple pages in a website adds extra burden for screen reader users who rely on unique page titles to immediately understand where they are.

In addition having unique page titles also helps with internet searches. One method used by search engines is to look for relevance of page titles and display those titles in a prioritized list for users to choose from.

Whom does it benefit?

Example 1:

As a person who relies on a screen reader to navigate websites,
I want page titles to be descriptive and unique
so that I can quickly identify and select the page I am seeking without having to read the page content.

Example 2:

As a person with cognitive disability,
I want to be able to determine the content of the page by its title
so that I can know if the page is relevant to the information I’m looking for.

Example 3:

As a person with severe mobility impairment,
I want page titles to be descriptive and unique
so that I can more easily navigate between multiple open web pages using voice commands.

What should you do?

First, be sure that each web page of a website has a title. Second, ensure that the page tiles you create are unique, concise and reflect the content of the page.

How do you do it?

  • Web Pages: Website titles should be coded in the HTML document using a <title> tag. Here is a code example:

    			
				<!DOCTYPE html>
    
				<html lang="en">
    
				
    
				<head>
    
					<title>Understanding Page Titles</title>
    
				</head>
    
				
    
				<body>
    
				The content of the document…
    
				</body>
    
				
    
				</html>
  • Documents: Electronic document titles should be entered into the Title field located within the document properties.
    • Office 365: Document properties are located on the “File” menu on the “Info” page
    • PDF (Acrobat): Document properties are located in the “File” menu, under “Properties”. Select the “Description” tab, then enter the title in the “Title” field.

Need technical guidance?

Additional Resources to help you: