PrestaShop duplicate meta titles: tidying up one category as an example
PrestaShop duplicate meta titles most often come from three things: duplicating products in the admin, importing with a single title template, and identical names. You fix them in groups. First you find the groups of pages that share a title. Then you add to each one the feature that sets it apart: size, material or model.
Author: The TellMyShop team. A guide for PrestaShop store owners: the cause, the manual fix and the same work in a chat conversation.
Last updated: · 5 min read
Why is the same title on many pages a problem?
Because Google and the customer cannot tell those pages apart in the results. The page title (meta title) is the first line of a search result. Take forty products with the title “Work gloves | Store”. Google then usually writes its own result title, or shows a different product from the right one.
Google says so plainly in its guide to title links in search results. Repetitive, templated titles are one of the reasons the search engine rewrites them. There is no penalty for it. What you lose is control over the text the customer reads before clicking.
Where do duplicates come from in PrestaShop?
From four sources, and each leaves a different trace.
| Source | How to recognise it | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The Duplicate button in the admin | the copy has the same title, Google description and a similar address | a new title and description for the copy |
| Import from a wholesaler | the whole category has one title template | titles with each product's feature |
| Empty meta title and the same name | combinations as separate products with identical names | size or colour in the title or the name |
| Categories with the same name | “Accessories” in several sections | the section name in the category title |
Copying the title when duplicating is known PrestaShop behaviour, described in this GitHub issue. You find the title field on the product's SEO tab, as shown in the product management documentation. Store owners have been asking about this for years, for example in this PrestaShop forum thread.
What does tidying up one category look like?
Take a Work gloves category with 42 products. A store review shows three groups of duplicates. The first has 18 products with a title from the import. The second is 9 nitrile products with the same name in different sizes. The third is 4 copies made with the Duplicate button.
The order of work looks like this:
- Start with the group that contains the products with the most sales or traffic.
- For each group, choose the feature that sets the products apart: material, size, cuff length.
- Settle on a title pattern, for example name, feature, brand. Keep to about 60 characters.
- Write titles for the whole group and read them side by side. Two identical ones will jump out at once.
- Save and check a few pages in the page source or the browser tab.
- After a few weeks, see in Google which titles the search engine kept and which it rewrote.
By hand, each group means opening the product, going to the SEO tab, typing the title and saving. With 42 products that is a long afternoon in the admin.
How to write a title that does not repeat
Start with what the customer types into Google and end with the store name. The most important words go first, because Google cuts off the end of a long title anyway. You can add the store name at the end, or leave it out when the title is long.
A good product title usually has three parts: the product type, the distinguishing feature and the brand or model. “Nitrile work gloves, size 9 (L)” says more than “Work gloves”. A category needs a different pattern from a product, for example “Metal and glass garden lanterns”. Avoid stuffing several phrases separated by commas. Google rewrites such a title just as readily as a duplicate.
Where to find duplicates if Search Console does not show them
In the store's catalogue, not in Google. The current Search Console no longer has the duplicate titles report that longer-standing store owners remember. You have three options. Export the titles to a spreadsheet, for example with an export module, and sort by title. Use a program that crawls the store like a search engine. Or run an audit in a conversation with the chat, which reads titles straight from the store database, including categories and information pages.
How to rewrite repeated titles in batches
You ask for a list of duplicates, and your chat (Claude or ChatGPT) groups products and categories that share the same title or Google description. This part works in TellMyShop Free. In TellMyShop Pro the chat writes new titles and shows them in a preview. One batch is up to 50 products or 20 categories.
You: Find products with the same meta title in the Work gloves category and make each one unique. Name, material, size.
Your chat: I found 3 groups, 31 products in total. Preview for the nitrile group, 9 products, the first two:
All titles fit within 60 characters. I'll save it after your ‘yes’.
You: Save this group.
Your chat: Saved, 9 products. You can undo the whole batch from the change history with one instruction. Shall I move on to the import group?
Card status: waiting for your “yes”old version: Nitrile work gloves | Store
new version: Nitrile work gloves, size 8 (M) | Store
old version: Nitrile work gloves | Store
new version: Nitrile work gloves, size 10 (XL) | Store
Saving works like the Save button in the admin. It does not change the product's address or its name in the store. The wording of both requests, finding and fixing, is shown in the use cases find products with the same title and fixing products with the same title. Once the titles are ready, move on to the Google descriptions, which we cover in the post on the meta description in PrestaShop. You can run a wider store review in TellMyShop Free.
Questions and answers
Does Google penalise a store for duplicate meta titles?
There is no penalty in the sense of a filter. The problem is practical. Google writes its own result title when it decides yours is repetitive. The customer sees several identical results and does not know which to click. Pages with the same title are also harder for Google to tell apart. So it is worth removing duplicates, starting with products that get traffic.
Where in Search Console do I find duplicate titles?
The current Search Console has no separate duplicate titles report. The old report from the former Webmaster Tools is gone. You can find duplicates in an export of titles to a spreadsheet, or with a program that crawls the store like a search engine. A third way is an SEO audit in a conversation with the chat, which groups pages with the same title.
Is an empty meta title a duplicate too?
Indirectly, yes. When the field is empty, PrestaShop uses the product name. If several products have the same name, for example Nitrile work gloves in three sizes, they get the same title. Then it is enough to add the feature that sets the products apart to the meta title, or to fix the names themselves.
Which feature best sets product titles apart?
The one customers search for in Google and that really differs within the group. For gloves it is usually material and size, for sofas dimensions or fabric colour, for lanterns material and height. Avoid forcing in catalogue numbers. A code only helps when customers actually type it.
Can fixing titles break anything in the store?
Changing the meta title does not change the product's address or its name in the store. It changes the text in the browser tab and in Google results. In a conversation with the chat you see each batch in a preview first, and you can undo a whole saved operation from the change history with one instruction.
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