VC001 – Title Consistency
Overview
Ensures product title is consistent across `<title>`, `<h1>`, and Product schema `name`, and that there is exactly one h1.
Probability that AI systems use this signal: Crawlers and generative AI pipelines consume structured and visible page signals for training and inference. Assessment-specific signals (e.g. schema, canonicals, trust cues) affect how likely a page is indexed and surfaced. The probability that this assessment's signal influences AI behavior is high when the page is in a product or compliance context.
Impact on geo compliance: Passing this assessment supports geo compliance by ensuring machine-readable and visible content meet standards that reduce the risk of wrong locale, pricing, or trust in AI-generated answers. Failing can lead to non-compliant or misleading surfacing.
What We Check
- SD001 must be passed. Extract: title tag text, first h1 text, Product/ProductGroup name from JSON-LD.
- **Missing title:** −50. **Missing h1:** −50. **Missing schema name:** −50.
- **Multiple h1:** count of h1 tags; if > 1: −20.
- **Consistency:** _titles_match(title, h1, schema_name): all three normalized and equal. Normalization: lower, strip; remove common suffixes (" - best deals", " | shop now", " - official store", " - buy online", " | free shipping", " - sale"); collapse spaces. If all three present but not match: −50.
Pass / Fail and Score
- **PASSED** if score >= 60. Score capped at 0.
How to Fix When It Fails
- Add title tag to page head; add h1 with product name; add name to Product schema.
- Use only one h1 per page.
- Ensure title tag, h1, and schema name are consistent (after normalizing suffixes).
Common Issues
- Missing title, h1, or schema name. Multiple h1s. Mismatch between the three (e.g. different suffixes).
Dependencies
SD001.
How to Verify
- Compare <title>, <h1>, and Product name; ensure one h1 and semantic match.
Additional Resources
- SEO title/H1 best practices; schema.org Product.name