Your agency said the site was SEO-optimised but every page is missing a title tag

What a title tag actually is

When you search Google and see a list of results, the blue clickable headline at the top of each result is the title tag. It is written into the code of every page and tells Google what that page is about.

Every page should have its own title tag. The home page might say "Bristol Plumber - Emergency Callouts - SmithPlumbing". The about page might say "About SmithPlumbing - 20 Years Serving Bristol". Each one different, each one describing that specific page.

If a page has no title tag, Google either invents one from the page content or shows the URL. Neither looks good. Neither helps you rank.

How to check your own site in 30 seconds

You do not need to be technical to verify this. Open your website in a normal browser tab and look at the top of the window - the small text on the browser tab itself. That text is the title tag.

• If it says the name of your business and what the page is about, you have a title tag.
• If it just says your domain name, or "Home", or is blank, the title tag is missing or broken.
• Check three or four pages, not just the home page. Click through to your services, about, and contact pages and look at the tab on each.

You can also search Google for site:yourdomain.co.uk and look at how your pages appear. If the headlines look like nonsense or just show URLs, the title tags are missing or wrong.

Why missing title tags matter

Title tags are the first thing any SEO checklist covers. Before anything else - before keywords, links, content strategy, technical audits - you check that every page has a unique, descriptive title tag. It is week one, lesson one.

They matter for two reasons. Google uses them as a primary signal of what your page is about, so missing or duplicated title tags make it harder for you to rank for the things you actually do. And in the search results themselves, the title is what people click on. A weak or missing title means fewer clicks even when you do rank.

An SEO package without title tags is like an MOT where the mechanic forgot to check the brakes.

What else is probably missing

If the title tags are missing, the rest of the basics are almost certainly missing too. Worth checking:

• Meta descriptions - the short summary under the blue headline in Google results. Often blank or duplicated across pages.
• Heading structure - every page should have one main heading describing what it is. Many agency template builds have no main heading or three of them on the same page.
• Image descriptions - photos on the site should have a short text description in the code so Google can understand them. These are usually missing entirely.
• Google Search Console setup - the free Google tool that tells you how your site is performing. Half the time the agency never connected it.

If you were told you bought "SEO" and none of these are in place, you did not buy SEO. You bought a line item on an invoice.

What to say to your agency

Keep it factual and written. Email them, do not phone. You want a paper trail.

Hi - I have been checking the SEO work we are paying for. Every page on the site appears to be missing its title tag. Can you confirm what on-page SEO has been done and when? I would also like to see a list of the title tags and meta descriptions for each page.

Watch the response. A real agency will either fix it within a day and apologise, or explain in plain English what they have done and why. An agency that has been billing you for nothing will give you jargon, blame your platform, or claim title tags are "not how SEO works any more". They are. They have been for 25 years.

What to do next

If your agency cannot explain what SEO work has been done, or refuses to fix the basics, stop paying for SEO. You are funding a service that does not exist. Cancel that line item and keep the hosting separate while you decide what to do next.

Then get the site looked at by someone who will tell you the truth. SkipTheAgency's Maintained plan is £65/month and includes basic on-page SEO - title tags, meta descriptions, headings, image descriptions - as part of the standard service, not a separate package. If the site needs more than that, you will be told plainly, with a fixed quote and a deadline.