duplicate titles
Pages sharing the same title compete with each other in search results
What it is
crawler.sh flags duplicate titles when multiple pages share the exact same <title> tag. Pages are grouped by their canonical URL before comparison, so canonicalized variants don’t trigger false positives. This is check #15 in the SEO analysis.
Why it matters for SEO
Duplicate titles cause several problems:
- Keyword cannibalization - When multiple pages have the same title, they compete against each other for the same search queries, splitting ranking signals.
- Confusing search results - Users see multiple identical listings and can’t tell which page has the content they need.
- Crawl budget waste - Search engines may spend time crawling pages that appear identical based on their titles.
- Poor indexation - Search engines may choose to index only one of the duplicate-titled pages, potentially picking the wrong one.
Why it matters for AEO
AI answer engines de-duplicate sources when generating answers. If multiple pages on your site have the same title, the AI may only cite one - and it might not be the most relevant page. Unique titles help AI systems distinguish between your pages and cite the right one.
How to fix it
Give each page a unique title that accurately describes its specific content:
| Page | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
/products/widget-a | Products - Acme | Widget A - Acme Products |
/products/widget-b | Products - Acme | Widget B - Acme Products |
Common causes:
- Template-generated pages using the same default title
- Category pages not including the category name
- Paginated pages (page 2, 3, etc.) not including the page number
Note: crawler.sh groups pages by canonical URL before checking for duplicates. If page A and page B both set
rel="canonical"to the same URL, they won’t be flagged as duplicates.
What crawler.sh reports
In the CLI, duplicate titles appear under the “Duplicate titles” section of crawler seo output, showing the shared title and all affected URLs. In the desktop app, they appear in the SEO Issues card.
