SVG image files causing multiple title tags on page - SEO issue?

[mrdavidingram]

Does anyone have any experience with SVG image files and on-page SEO?

A client is using them and it seems they use the title tag in the same way a regular image (JPG/PNG) would use an image ALT tag. I'm concerned that search engines will see the multiple title tags on the page and that this will cause SEO issues.

Regular crawlers like Moz flag it as a second title tag, however it's outside the header and in a SVG wrap so the crawlers really should understand that this is a SVG title rather than a second page title. But is this the case?

If anyone has experience with this, I'd love to hear about it.

[Tyler-Brown]

I noticed this with some of our competition. It doesn't seem to hurt them being that they are ranked number 1 and 2

[evolvingSEO]

Hi Joshua

I don't think this will cause a search engine conflict, but I'll pass this to a Moz product person to see if they can answer re: Moz On-Page Grader

-Dan (Moz Associate)

[Sandicliffe]

Hi David

I am getting the same issue when I use the Moz On-Page Grader, it is telling me I am using too many title tags, but surely this shouldn't flag an issue as these title tags are external from the head, or does this genuinely impact the ranking of the page?

Here is an example of an SVG our designer has put into a page (one of many) that is being flagged:

<title>Find Your Dealership Icon</title>

In addition do search engines read the title tag or is it ignored?

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help.

[evolvingSEO]

David

It's hard to tell from that image if the SVG title is nested like in this example: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Element/title - can you let us know?

Thanks!

[mrdavidingram]

Yep - attached. I've redacted the title as it showed the client's name but would be good to see whether you think this is properly optimised?

lTsMcoJ

[kwoolf]

It would surely be helpful to post the HTML so we can see what's going on. W3Schools has a great tutorial here http://www.w3schools.com/svg/default.asp. If your title tag is properly embedded with the svg element, everything will be fine. From what you posted here, it seems you're afraid search engines will confuse the svg title with the page title. That won't happen if your HTML is correct. Post it here and I'll take a look.

[Martijn_Scheijbeler]

Could you share the example here? I doubt it would create any issues as it seems that it's more an issue on the side of most SEO crawlers. A title elemement on an SVG doesn't even get close to being a second title tag