Bing webmaster tools says bad SEO for embedded SVG containing <title> tags

Question

I am working on a site where I have used SVG directly embedded in the HTML5 page. I use the <title> tags within the SVG to get the mouse hover tooltip effect to provide some information about the image.

It all works fine but when I check my site with Bing webmaster tools, it is telling me that the pages for which I have done this have SEO problems due to multiple <title> tags within the pages.

Do I actually need to be worried about this? If so are there any alternatives that I can use to get the same effect as that of the <title> tag.

Google webmaster tools do not complain about the issue, just Bing so I am really unsure as to whether this is a bad thing or not from SEO perspectives.

Answer 1

Your use of the tag is correct according to the w3 docs. Make sure that it is the first element within your SVG, and it should be functional in browsers that render it as a tooltip.

As for Bing Webmaster tools, I think this is an oversight on their part. I recommend trying the same type of test using Google Webmaster Tools Fetch and Render Feature to see what Googlebot makes of it. Also running a scan from https://validator.w3.org/ should help ensure your markup is valid.

If you want to ensure tool tip functionality across browsers and avoid any possible SEO issues I recommend using a javascript implementation such as Foundation's or Bootstrap's.

Sources:

• http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/struct.html#DescriptionAndTitleElements
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Element/title