This translation has not been editorially reviewed yet. The German version is authoritative. Deutsche Fassung
Indexing
Why does every page need its own title?
Because the page title is the most important distinguishing feature in the search index: if several pages carry the same title, the search engine can't tell them apart — they compete for the same search queries and take visibility away from each other. Our check counts title duplicates across the pages measured and reports only the real cases: matching titles with DIFFERENT canonical addresses.
When pages compete against each other
Search engines pick the most relevant page on a domain for every query. If several pages carry the same title, the strongest signal for that choice is missing — the search engine switches between the candidates, and none of them builds stable visibility. Duplicates usually arise harmlessly (a template sets the same title everywhere, category pages inherit the category's name), but the effect isn't harmless: the affected pages share one position instead of each occupying their own.
What the check exactly measures — and what doesn't count
Only duplicates with different canonicals count — that is, pages that both want to be in the index. If several address variants point via canonical to the same page, the identical title is correct and doesn't appear in the finding. The report names the largest duplicate with its title and affected addresses; the fix is one of two things per case: make the titles distinct, or merge the pages onto one via canonical.
- Give every page a title that names its specific content — not just the website's or section's name.
- Check templates and automatically generated pages: duplicates arise there by the dozen.
- Merge pages with identical content via canonical, instead of inventing different titles for both.
