WCAG 2.1 · Level A · Operable
WCAG 2.4.2 — Page Titled, explained with examples
Web pages must have titles that describe topic or purpose. Screen readers announce the title on page load. Tab labels in browsers use it. SEO ranking depends on it.
- Number
- 2.4.2
- Level
- A
- Principle
- Operable
- Guideline
- 2.4 Navigable
Why this criterion exists
Screen readers announce the title on page load. Tab labels in browsers use it. SEO ranking depends on it.
If you only remember one thing: web pages must have titles that describe topic or purpose. Everything else on this page is detail.
Who feels it when this fails
Accessibility criteria sometimes feel abstract until you see who pays the cost when a site ignores them. Page Titled affects:
Screen reader users
All users navigating multiple tabs
Search engines
How sites typically fail it
These are the patterns we see week after week. None are intentional — they are accidents of how teams build interfaces under deadline. Knowing the failure modes is the fastest path to writing them out of your component library.
Every page using the site name only
Untitled or "Document"
How to test for it
Open every page in a separate tab; titles should make distinguishing easy.
Automated scanners catch this criterion most of the time, but never all of the time. Manual testing with the keyboard and a screen reader closes the gap.
A code fix you can copy
Format: page-specific topic — site name. Keep under 60 characters.
The problem
<title>Site</title>The fix
<title>Pricing — Certvo</title>Format: page-specific topic — site name. Keep under 60 characters.
Other Operable criteria
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