Title tags are present and non-default

The <title> is the text Google puts on every search-result link, the string the browser shows in the tab, the default when anyone bookmarks the page, and the primary signal screen readers use to announce "which page am I on." A page shipped with the framework boilerplate title ("Create Next App", "Vite + React", "Astro") tells search engines the page is indistinguishable from every other scaffold on the internet and tells users the site was never finished. The specific anti-pattern this check catches is AI-built sites leaving the layout-level default title untouched because the generating tool added unique content per-page without ever writing the per-page export const metadata. Duplicate or missing titles are also the #1 issue flagged in Google Search Console's "Page indexing" report and a direct signal that competes on click-through rate: Google's own research shows CTR drops 30–40% when titles are missing or generic.

  // app/about/page.tsx
  export const metadata = { title: 'About Us — Acme' }

Deeper remediation guidance and cross-reference coverage for this check lives in the seo-fundamentals Pro audit — run that after applying this fix for a more exhaustive pass on the same topic.

• ID: project-snapshot.seo.title-tags-present
• Severity: medium
• What to look for: Enumerate every page (Next.js page.tsx, Astro .astro page, etc.). For each, check whether a title is set via the framework's metadata API (export const metadata = { title } for Next.js App Router, <title> in head for Pages Router/Vite/Astro, etc.). Count pages with titles vs. without. Flag any page using the framework default title (e.g., "Create Next App").
• Pass criteria: At least 90% of pages declare a title, and 0 pages use the framework default boilerplate title.
• Fail criteria: More than 10% of pages without titles, OR any page using the boilerplate default.
• Skip (N/A) when: Project is an API / CLI / library with no rendered pages.
• Do NOT pass when: A title is set in the root layout but never overridden per-page — every page should have a unique title.
• Report even on pass: "Found N pages; M have titles, K use unique per-page titles, 0 use boilerplate defaults. Title coverage: M/N = X%."
• Detail on fail: "3 of 12 pages missing title metadata; root layout title 'Create Next App' is still present".
• Cross-reference: For full SEO coverage (structured data, canonical URLs, hreflang, Open Graph depth), run the seo-fundamentals then seo-advanced audits.
• Remediation:

  // app/about/page.tsx
  export const metadata = { title: 'About Us — Acme' }