This document gives information about the related accessibility check:
Page is missing a title
What
The web page must have a title defined by the first HTML title element on the page. The first HTML title element must contain text and must not be empty or consist solely of whitespace characters.
Why
Page titles are crucial for navigation and accessibility. For users with visual impairments who use screen readers, a clear title helps them quickly understand what each page is about. For those with cognitive disabilities, descriptive titles make it easier to find the right page. Additionally, users with multiple tabs open in their browsers can easily identify and switch between pages based on their titles, which improves overall efficiency and gives a better user experience.
Who
Affected users
This check affects the following users who have:
Visual impairments: Who access the site contents with a screen reader or screen magnification software.
Cognitive impairments: Who benefit from clear instructions and descriptive page titles.
User story
Michael, 45 years old, is the Director of Operations at a global tech company. He’s an avid runner who participates in marathons and enjoys early morning jogs. He lives with his spouse and two teenage children, and he values family game nights.
“In my line of work, I've got a ton of browser tabs open at any given time. It's just part of managing all the different projects and tasks. The thing is, if those tabs don't have clear, descriptive names, it can become a real headache.
Last week I had a situation where an urgent server issue popped up, and I needed to quickly access a specific tab with system status updates. Because a lot of my tabs were named things like 'Untitled' or just had vague titles, I wasted minutes trying to figure out which one I needed. In a high-pressure moment like that, those minutes can make a big difference.”
Examples
This section gives some examples of the issue.
Example: Untitled tabs
In this example, the user has multiple tabs open in their browser, each displaying different websites. Many of these tabs do not have titles, which makes it hard to quickly find the right tab when they need to locate another page. This issue arises because the webpages in these tabs do not have a title attribute that defines the title of the page.
Example: Empty title element
The code shows the <head> element from a webpage. The <title> element is present, but it only contains blank spaces instead of a descriptive text. This causes problems for users who rely on the page title to understand and navigate the site.
<head>
<title> </title>
</head>
Example: Title element describing page content
In this example, the page <title> element contains a text description of the content on the page. This is beneficial because it helps users understand and navigate to the desired page.
<head>
<title> Western European Birds and Their Habitats Database</title>
</head>
How
This section provides information about how to identify and fix the issue.
How to identify it
The Acquia Web Governance platform flags pages that either lack an HTML <title> element or have multiple <title> elements where the first one contains only whitespace.
How to fix it
To fix this issue, you need to adjust the HTML code to include at least one <title> element.
If the page has more than one <title> element, ensure that the first <title> element contains a text description of the page content or function.
For example, your code might look like this:
<head>
<title>Western European Birds and Their Habitats Database</title>
</head>
Refer to the ACT rules section below for a link to a complete technical explanation of this check.
This document gives information about the related accessibility check:
Page is missing a title
What
The web page must have a title defined by the first HTML title element on the page. The first HTML title element must contain text and must not be empty or consist solely of whitespace characters.
Why
Page titles are crucial for navigation and accessibility. For users with visual impairments who use screen readers, a clear title helps them quickly understand what each page is about. For those with cognitive disabilities, descriptive titles make it easier to find the right page. Additionally, users with multiple tabs open in their browsers can easily identify and switch between pages based on their titles, which improves overall efficiency and gives a better user experience.
Who
Affected users
This check affects the following users who have:
Visual impairments: Who access the site contents with a screen reader or screen magnification software.
Cognitive impairments: Who benefit from clear instructions and descriptive page titles.
User story
Michael, 45 years old, is the Director of Operations at a global tech company. He’s an avid runner who participates in marathons and enjoys early morning jogs. He lives with his spouse and two teenage children, and he values family game nights.
“In my line of work, I've got a ton of browser tabs open at any given time. It's just part of managing all the different projects and tasks. The thing is, if those tabs don't have clear, descriptive names, it can become a real headache.
Last week I had a situation where an urgent server issue popped up, and I needed to quickly access a specific tab with system status updates. Because a lot of my tabs were named things like 'Untitled' or just had vague titles, I wasted minutes trying to figure out which one I needed. In a high-pressure moment like that, those minutes can make a big difference.”
Examples
This section gives some examples of the issue.
Example: Untitled tabs
In this example, the user has multiple tabs open in their browser, each displaying different websites. Many of these tabs do not have titles, which makes it hard to quickly find the right tab when they need to locate another page. This issue arises because the webpages in these tabs do not have a title attribute that defines the title of the page.
Example: Empty title element
The code shows the <head> element from a webpage. The <title> element is present, but it only contains blank spaces instead of a descriptive text. This causes problems for users who rely on the page title to understand and navigate the site.
<head>
<title> </title>
</head>
Example: Title element describing page content
In this example, the page <title> element contains a text description of the content on the page. This is beneficial because it helps users understand and navigate to the desired page.
<head>
<title> Western European Birds and Their Habitats Database</title>
</head>
How
This section provides information about how to identify and fix the issue.
How to identify it
The Acquia Web Governance platform flags pages that either lack an HTML <title> element or have multiple <title> elements where the first one contains only whitespace.
How to fix it
To fix this issue, you need to adjust the HTML code to include at least one <title> element.
If the page has more than one <title> element, ensure that the first <title> element contains a text description of the page content or function.
For example, your code might look like this:
<head>
<title>Western European Birds and Their Habitats Database</title>
</head>
Refer to the ACT rules section below for a link to a complete technical explanation of this check.
Web Governance