Skip to main content

Whole page

Page title is missing or generic

WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.2 Page Titled (Level A)

WCAG 2.2
2.4.2 Page Titled
Level
A
Default severity
Error
Available in
Free

Why it matters

The page title is the first thing a screen reader announces when a page opens, and the name shown on browser tabs, bookmarks and search results. Without one — or with a title like "Home" or "Untitled" on every page — visitors cannot tell pages or tabs apart, and screen reader users cannot confirm they landed where they meant to.

Who it affects: Keyboard, screen reader and low-vision users — every visitor meets the page title, language, landmarks, keyboard focus, target sizes and zoom settings on every page.

What Lumtera flags

Checked in review mode's Whole page tab, on the page as your theme renders it. A page with no <title>, or an empty one, is an error. A title that says nothing about the page is a warning: generic words such as "Home", "Untitled", "Sample Page" or "Hello world!", or — on any page except the front page — a title that is only the site name.

How to fix it in WordPress

Every page needs a unique <title> describing it. Themes add one automatically when they support "title-tag"; if yours does not, ask the theme author, or set titles with your SEO plugin. If the title is generic, give the post a descriptive title, and if the theme or an SEO plugin builds the title, check its title template includes the post title.

Example

Flagged on the rendered page
<head>
  <title>Home</title>
</head>
Fixed
<head>
  <title>Contact us – Rosa's Café</title>
</head>

How to check your fix

  1. Reload the page in review mode and run the Whole page tab again. The finding disappears once the rendered page passes.
  2. Load the page and press Tab: a "Skip to content" link should appear first, and you should always see where focus is, even under a sticky header. Pinch-zoom on a phone, and check the browser tab shows a meaningful title.

Check your pages with Lumtera

This check is free. Open any post, choose Accessibility in the admin bar, then the Whole page tab: Lumtera checks the page as your browser renders it, theme, menus and footer included, one page at a time. Lumtera Pro also checks for a missing or empty title on a daily or weekly schedule, fetching up to 25 key pages and templates from the server as a logged-out visitor, and emails you (or posts to Slack) when a new error appears.

Download Lumtera free Read the documentation

All checks

Start with the free plugin today

All 64 checks, the editor sidebar, Elementor panel and site report — free, with no account and no page limits.

Download freeSee Pro plans