Page titles

Creating good page titles

Good page titles help people know where they are and move easily between pages open in their browser. The first thing screen readers say when the user goes to a different web page is the page title.

Titles for each page of a website are:

• shown in the window title bar in browsers
• shown in browsers’ tabs when there are multiple pages open
• shown in search engine list results
• used for browser bookmarks/favourites
• read by screen readers

Highlighting page title browser tab from From Tides to Tins website.

Highlighting page title browser tab from Navigating the St.Lawrence website.

What to check

• Begin titles with the important information so that it is immediately clear and visible in tabs.
• Look at each page’s title and listen with a screen reader. Each title should reflect the page’s content and distinguish the page from other web pages.

Resources

• Easy checks – A first review of web accessibility: title
• Title tag: what is a meta title tag?