Why this matters
Page titles are the first thing announced by screen readers and appear in browser tabs, bookmarks, and search results. A missing or generic title makes it impossible to identify pages when multiple tabs are open.
Common failures
These are the most frequent ways this criterion is violated in real-world websites:
- Empty <title> tag
- Same title on every page (e.g. 'My App')
- Title doesn't describe the page content
- SPA that doesn't update the title on navigation
How to fix
- Set descriptive, unique titles: <title>Account Settings — xsbl</title>
- Follow the pattern: Page Name — Site Name
- In SPAs, update document.title on every route change
- Include key information first (e.g. '3 items in cart' not 'Cart page')
Related axe-core rules
xsbl uses axe-core to automatically detect violations of this criterion. The following rules are checked:
Check your site for 2.4.2 violations
xsbl scans your rendered pages in a real browser and finds violations of this criterion automatically.
Scan your site freeOfficial reference: Understanding WCAG 2.4.2: Page Titled (W3C)