WCAG 2.4.2 — Page Titled
Every page needs a unique title element that describes what the page is about.
What this means for a store
The title is the first thing a screen reader announces when a user moves between tabs. If all 200 products in the catalogue carry the title 'Shop', the customer cannot tell which product they are on. It is also the line that appears in search results, so the fix improves click-through at the same time.
The failures we see most often
The same title on every page (the store name, or 'Home').
Why it happens: The theme prints a fixed title, or the SEO plugin was configured for the homepage only.
An empty or placeholder title such as 'Untitled'.
Why it happens: Custom templates added through a page builder are published before the title field is filled.
Keyword-stuffed titles ('Shoes Sports Shoes Cheap Shoes Online Shoes').
Why it happens: An old SEO habit. A screen reader reads the whole string, and the page becomes harder to identify, not easier.
Paginated listings where the page number never reaches the title, so five pages share one title.
Why it happens: The pagination template does not touch the title.
How to check it yourself
- Open several product pages in separate tabs and see whether the tab titles let you tell them apart.
- Go to page 2 of a category listing — does the title change?
- Check the cart, checkout, account and 404 pages individually. These are the ones usually forgotten.
Fixing it, by platform
- Shopify — Page Titled Theme code: the title element in layout/theme.liquid; per-product and per-collection SEO fields in Admin.
- WooCommerce — Page Titled SEO plugin title templates (Yoast, Rank Math); the theme must call wp_head().
- Webflow — Page Titled Page settings, SEO Settings, Title Tag; field binding in CMS collection templates.
- Wix — Page Titled The SEO panel's page title field.
- Squarespace — Page Titled Page Settings, SEO, SEO Title.
What this page covers
What follows is the practical meaning of a WCAG 2.2 success criterion. Automated tests catch only a portion of accessibility issues, so a clean scan result does not mean compliance. Platform paths vary by version and theme.
Source
The formal definition of this criterion: W3C — Understanding Page Titled