Does the title tag still matter for SEO?

Yes. Google documents it as a primary signal for what a page is about and as the main text of the result link. It is one of the few elements that is both a ranking input and the thing a user actually reads.

Why does Google show a title I did not write?

Google rewrites title links when it judges the original inaccurate, over-long, keyword-stuffed, or identical across many pages. A rewritten title is often a signal that the original was weak.

Can two pages share a title?

Nothing forbids it, but it makes the pages indistinguishable in results and is usually a symptom of a template applying a constant. If two pages genuinely deserve the same title, they may be the same page.

Website problems

Missing page title

A missing page title means the document has no `<title>` element, or it is empty. The title is the strongest single descriptor a page gives about itself: it names the page in search results, in the browser tab, in bookmarks and in links shared on most platforms. A page without one is almost always a template fault rather than an oversight on that page, and it is worth treating as such.

What it looks like

The `<head>` contains no `<title>`, or contains `<title></title>`. Browsers fall back to showing the URL in the tab, and search engines generate a title from the page's heading or its link anchors elsewhere.

A variant that reads the same to a user but is a different defect: every page shares one title, usually the site name. The page has a title, it just does not identify the page.

Why it matters

Google's own documentation describes the title link as one of the most visible elements of a result and a primary way people decide what to click. When it is missing, the search engine constructs one — from the `<h1>`, from anchor text pointing at the page, or from the site name — and the result is frequently worse than anything you would have written.

The effect compounds with sharing: most platforms read `<title>` when no Open Graph title is present, so a missing title propagates into every link anyone posts.

How to check it yourself

On one page: `document.title` in the console returns the string, or an empty one. Viewing source and searching for `<title` answers the same question without running scripts.

Across a site, the useful signal is the distribution: how many distinct titles for how many pages. A site with 400 pages and 12 distinct titles has a template problem regardless of whether any single title is missing.

Google Search Console does not report missing titles directly, but a page appearing in results under a title you never wrote is a reliable symptom.

How to fix it

Give every page a title that identifies it, roughly 30 to 60 characters, most specific part first. `Blue running shoes — Acme` beats `Acme — the best shop for all your needs`.

Fix it in the template, with a fallback that cannot produce an empty string. A template that builds the title from a field which is sometimes null is how a handful of pages end up untitled while the rest look fine.

Keep the brand suffix short or drop it on pages where the space is better spent. It is a convention, not a requirement.

How VeriFixScan detects it

The `seo.title` check reads the `<title>` of every page the crawler reached and reports those that are empty or absent, with their URLs. A separate check, `seo.duplicate_titles`, reports the distribution across the site, which is what identifies a template fault rather than a one-page slip.

`seo.title_length` reports titles far outside the useful range, as information rather than as a failure: a long title is truncated in results, not rejected.

Where an empty title comes from

It is almost never an author leaving a field blank. The patterns repeat across every stack.

A template reading a field that is sometimes null. The title is built from `page.seoTitle` with no fallback, and the handful of pages where nobody filled that field render `<title></title>`. The rest of the site looks perfect, which is why it goes unnoticed for months.

A head-management library that fails to run. In a JavaScript application the title is frequently set after mount rather than in the server response, so the HTML a crawler reads has the default title or none at all — while every human tester sees the right one.

Error and edge routes. The 404 page, the maintenance page, the search-with-no-results page: pages nobody designs and everybody ships.

Routes added outside the main template. A landing page built by a different team, an embedded tool, a legacy path that predates the current layout.

The common thread is that the defect is invisible in the browser. Every one of these renders a correct-looking tab for a human and an empty title for a crawler, so the only way to find it is to read what the server actually returned.

Frequently asked questions

Does the title tag still matter for SEO?: Yes. Google documents it as a primary signal for what a page is about and as the main text of the result link. It is one of the few elements that is both a ranking input and the thing a user actually reads.
Why does Google show a title I did not write?: Google rewrites title links when it judges the original inaccurate, over-long, keyword-stuffed, or identical across many pages. A rewritten title is often a signal that the original was weak.
Can two pages share a title?: Nothing forbids it, but it makes the pages indistinguishable in results and is usually a symptom of a template applying a constant. If two pages genuinely deserve the same title, they may be the same page.

Sources

VeriFixScan crawls a site and applies its checks to every page it reaches, keeping the evidence behind each finding. Scanning one website is free.

Scan a website