Give every page its own title and description that say what the page is about and where. Use Search Console's HTML Improvements report to find duplicates, then fix the template or copying habit that caused them.

Fourteen pages with the same name

Search for a small business by name and the results can look like a stack of identical cards: the business name, then quality service since 1998, on every one.

Each card leads to a different page, but nothing tells the searcher which is which.

The cause is the page title, the line in each page's code that search engines show as the clickable headline, and often the description shown beneath it. On many small sites, every page has the same ones.

Google then has to work out for itself which page answers a search, and it sometimes picks the wrong one.

Why titles carry so much weight

The title is one of the strongest clues Google has about what a page covers, and it is the first thing a searcher reads.

When fourteen pages share one, Google has fourteen near-identical candidates for every related search. It may show the home page where a service page fits better, or rewrite your titles from words on the page.

The description works the same way. Duplicated, it is often ignored, and Google picks a sentence from the page instead, which may be a line from the sidebar or the footer.

Where duplicates come from

The second is the easiest to miss. A new service or location page is made by duplicating an old one, the heading and text are changed, and the title and description settings are never opened.

Finding them in Search Console

Search Console, Google's free tool for site owners, has a report built for this. Under Search Appearance, HTML Improvements lists duplicate title tags and duplicate meta descriptions, along with titles that are missing, too long or too short.

Click a line and it shows the repeated title and every address using it.

The report reflects Google's last visit to each page, so it can be weeks behind, and fixed pages leave it only as they are revisited.

If the site is not yet verified in Search Console, that is the first job, and it takes minutes.

Some duplicates are one page

Read the addresses before rewriting anything.

Sometimes the duplicate titles belong to one page reached in different ways: the www and plain versions of the domain, HTTP and HTTPS, a tracking code or a trailing slash on the end.

Those do not need new titles. They need one address chosen and the others redirected to it, or a canonical tag that tells Google which version is the real one.

Fixing that clears several lines from the report at once, and stops the page's links and history being split across its copies.

Writing titles that differ

A good title says what the page is about, then where, then who: kitchen renovations in Langley, followed by the company name.

Put the distinctive words first, since Google shows only about 60 characters. Two pages should never differ only in words that get cut off.

Descriptions get about 160 characters and do a different job: persuading someone to click. Say what the page offers and give one reason to choose it.

Start with the pages that matter: home, services, locations and contact. Blog posts and archives can follow.

A worked example

A residential appraiser with one assistant, working across several towns on Vancouver Island, built her site page by page over several years.

Each town she covers had its own page, and each type of appraisal had another: pre-listing, separation, estate, relocation. Every one was made by copying the first.

The HTML Improvements report showed one title shared by fourteen pages, certified residential appraisals followed by the firm's name. The same fourteen pages shared one description.

Searches for an appraiser in the smaller towns tended to show the home page or the largest town's page, since no title told them apart.

Each page got a title naming its service or town first, and a description of what it covered. The theme's settings were changed so new pages take their title from the page heading instead of a copied field.

The town pages were also rewritten so each says something specific to its town: the neighbourhoods, the kinds of property, the questions people there ask. A new title on an identical page would not have been enough.

Titles cannot rescue identical pages

The last point in that example matters beyond titles.

Pages that differ only in a town's name are close to what Google calls doorway pages, built to catch searches rather than to help anyone. New titles make them look different without making them different.

Each location page needs something true and specific to that place, or it should be merged into one page that lists the areas you serve.

The same goes for service pages copied from one another. If the text is the same, the title is the least of the problems.

Fix the cause

Rewriting titles fixes today. Fixing the cause keeps them fixed.

If the theme writes the site name into every title, the fix belongs in the theme, ideally in a child theme, where a theme update cannot overwrite it.

If pages are copied, add one step to the routine: before publishing, open the title and description settings and rewrite both.

Then check the report again a month later, once Google has revisited the pages.

The counter-case

A few duplicates are harmless. Two short archive pages sharing a title, or a printer-friendly copy of one page, will not hurt a site that is otherwise in order.

A very small site of five pages can fix everything in an afternoon and has little else to do here.

And titles are not a ranking trick. Distinct titles help Google choose the right page and help searchers choose you, but they do not make a page with little on it useful.

Still, every page that matters should have its own title and description, and the template should make that the default.

The fix in order

  1. Verify the site in Search Console.
  2. Open HTML Improvements under Search Appearance.
  3. Separate true duplicates from copies of one page.
  4. Redirect or canonicalise the copies.
  5. Rewrite titles and descriptions for key pages.
  6. Fix the template that caused them.
  7. Check the report again in a month.

Step six matters most. Rewritten titles last only until the next copied page or theme update, while a corrected template means every new page starts with a title of its own.

How Google now treats the links pointing at those pages is covered in Penguin now runs all the time.

Frequently asked questions

Why do duplicate titles matter?

The title is one of the strongest clues to what a page covers and the first thing searchers read. Shared titles leave Google guessing which page fits a search.

Where do duplicate titles come from?

Themes that put the site name in every title, pages copied with their settings, default plugin settings, blog archives, and the same page at several addresses.

How do I find duplicates?

In Search Console, under Search Appearance, the HTML Improvements report lists duplicate title tags and meta descriptions, with every address that shares them.

Are all duplicates separate pages?

No. Some are one page at several addresses, such as the www and plain versions of the domain. Those need a redirect or a canonical tag, not new titles.

What makes a good page title?

What the page is about, then where, then the business name, with the distinctive words first, since Google shows only about 60 characters.

Will new titles fix copied location pages?

No. Pages that differ only by town name need specific content for each place, or should be merged into one page listing the areas served.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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