How to make web pages accessible

Page title

Good page titles help everyone understand your web page

On this page

Why page titles matter

A page title helps people find your content and tells them what it is about. It:

  • appears first in search results
  • displays in the web browser tab
  • is usually the main heading on the page (H1)
  • is the first thing a screen reader reads out

Using clear, descriptive page titles to help everyone understand what your page contains, including people using screen readers, AI tools and search engines.

Create short, unique and descriptive page titles

Your page title must:

  • be descriptive
  • use plain language.
  • avoid unexplained jargon or technical terms
  • avoid abbreviations or acronyms unless well known (for example, UK, EU, NHS)

It should also: 

  • be short (60 characters or less) so it is not cut off in search results
  • put important words early (front-load)
  • use sentence case (except for proper nouns)
  • use words people would naturally search for

No two pages on your website should have the same page title.

Example:

  • Good page title: Who can claim Universal Credit
  • Poor page title: Who can claim

How to add or edit a page title

Most content management systems (CMS) let editors add or edit page titles, usually in a Content or Properties section.

Some CMS tools, like SharePoint, automatically use the main heading text as the page title.

Page title verses node name

Some CMS systems have both a page node field and a web page title field. 

A web page’s title is what people see on the page and in the browser tab.
The page node name is mainly for organising pages in the CMS and may also appear in the page’s URL.

The node name can be the same as the page title or different, depending on your CMS.

Screenshot showing Node name and Page Title fields in a CMS
The Node name and 'Content' page title can be the same or different in your CMS..

Check your page title

Before publishing, manually check your page title, manually check your page title meets this guidance. 

After publishing, check your page title is correctly applied:

  1. Open the web page in a web browser, like Microsoft Edge.
  2. Make sure page title clearly describes the page content.
  3. Check the page using either:
  4. Make sure the page title is heading 1 (H1)

Accessibility standards and resources

Following this guidance helps more people access council content and supports meeting UK accessibility regulations, including PSBAR 2018.

For more guidance on page titles:

If system or format limits stop you from following this guidance, contact the Communications and Marketing team before publishing.