Definition for WCAG 2.0 success criterion 2.4.2
2.4.2 Page Titled: Web pages have titles that describe topic or purpose.
The intent of this Success Criterion is to help users find content and orient themselves within it by ensuring that each web page has a descriptive title. User agents make the title of the page easily available to the user for identifying the page - in the case of web browsers, the title is generally shown in the relevant browser tab or title bar for the window, if present.
Providing an appropriate page title helps everyone, regardless of any particular impairment, to quickly identify the content of a Web page without needing to read the entire page in full.
In web pages, page titles are provided in the HTML through the use of the <title> element in the document's <head>. In the case of dynamic websites - such as a "Single Page App" (SPA) where different views/pages are loaded dynamically via scripting - the <title> element should also be dynamically updated to always reflect the loaded view/page.
If a page does not have a <title> element at all, browsers will generally fall back to showing the full URL or filename of the page.
What constitutes a "good" descriptive title for a page is arguably up to interpretation. In general, a tester should consider if the title, if viewed in isolation (for instance, as part of a user's bookmarks list, or when seen in the context of a browser with multiple disparate open tabs), is sufficiently clear in conveying both the purpose/content of that particular page, as well as making it clear what site or web application it relates to. For most websites, a useful rule of thumb is for a title to use a format of "main page heading | name of the site" or "main page heading | name of the section of the site | name of the site" (for instance "Our products | Product Company").
Note: a failure of this success criterion may generally be classed as a failure with relatively low severity, as in general a failure under this criterion would not lead to users being fundamentally unable to use/operate the website/application.
Note: this success criterion applies to complete pages. If the sample being tested is merely a sub-component of a full page (such as a modal dialog present in a much larger overall web page), this criterion is marked as not applicable.
Testing success criterion 2.2.1
Input into spreadsheet
- Fail
- The page either lacks a title, or the title is not sufficiently descriptive of the topic and purpose of the page.
- Pass
- The page has a title, and the title is sufficiently descriptive of the topic and purpose of the page.
- N/A
- The sample is a component that does not require a title.
How to test
- Visually verify that when the page is open in the browser, the tab or window title bar show a title. In the case of browser tabs, if the actual title is longer than the available space, hovering the mouse pointer over the tab generally shows a tooltip with the full title.
- Verify that this title is sufficiently descriptive of the topic and purpose of the page.
Input into spreadsheet
- Fail
- The page either lacks a
<title>element, or the title is not sufficiently descriptive of the topic and purpose of the page. - Pass
- The page has a
<title>element, and the title is sufficiently descriptive of the topic and purpose of the page. - N/A
- The sample is a component that does not require a title.
How to test
- Using the browser's developer tools, inspect the markup/DOM of the page.
- Verify that the page's
<head>section contains a<title>element. - Verify that this title is sufficiently descriptive of the topic and purpose of the page.