Last updated: 30 October 2026
If your WordPress homepage title shows the site name twice, for example "IT Blog - IT Blog", more than one thing is writing the title tag. A site should have exactly one <title> tag. This guide shows how to confirm the duplicate and fix the usual causes with Yoast SEO and your theme.
- Check: view the page source and search for
<title>. Count how many you find. - Common cause: the theme prints its own title and Yoast prints another.
- Fix: make sure the theme declares
add_theme_support( 'title-tag' )and has no hard-coded title in header.php.
In this guide
Confirm the problem
- Open your homepage, right-click and choose View page source.
- Search for
<title>. More than one result means two sources are printing titles. - Use a Google site: search or the URL Inspection tool to see what Google has stored, because Google may also rewrite titles itself.
Fix the theme
- Look for
add_theme_support( 'title-tag' );infunctions.php. A theme with title-tag support should not print its own<title>in templates. - If header.php still contains a hard-coded
<title>tag, remove it, or replace it with<title><?php wp_title(''); ?></title>for older themes without title-tag support. - Make theme edits in a child theme so updates do not overwrite them.
Yoast has a "Force rewrite titles" option for themes without title-tag support, but Yoast warns it can slow your site considerably and is the least desirable option.
Check the Yoast title template
In Yoast SEO, open the homepage title settings. If the template already ends with the site title and your own text also contains the site name, the name appears twice. Remove the repeated part, or use a single separator and site title variable.
Other causes
- Another SEO plugin or a theme feature is also writing titles. Deactivate plugins one at a time to find it.
- A caching or optimisation plugin is serving an old version of the page. Clear the cache.
FAQ
Does a duplicate title hurt SEO?
It makes the title look repetitive and wastes space in search results. Fixing it is simple and worth doing.
I fixed it but Google still shows the old title.
Request a recrawl in Search Console. Google can also choose a different title on its own.
Do I need to edit code?
Only if the theme prints its own title. Try Yoast settings and a plugin conflict check first.
Sources
More on this site: Security guides · All IT guides
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