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Should Page Builder pages show the theme's page title?

· 3 min read
Jon-Michael Lastimosa
Jon-Michael Lastimosa
Senior Web Developer

The question: Builder pages started rendering the theme's page title as an H1 bar above the built content (so "every page has exactly one H1"). Was that a good default — or should the theme title simply be disabled whenever the Page Builder is used, leaving the per-page "Hide the page title" checkbox to classic-editor pages only?

Context​

The theme renders a classic title header on ordinary pages, with a per-page Hide the page title checkbox (Page Settings). A header/footer batch added a global default — pages_show_title_on_builder, shipping as yes — that extended a title-only H1 header to builder pages too, motivated by the heading-outline audit (every page should have exactly one H1). The immediate effect: existing builder-built sites (the marketing home, the demos hub) suddenly grew a duplicate title bar above their heroes.

Options considered​

  • Keep showing by default — guarantees an H1 on builder pages whose authors forgot one, but breaks every existing designed page and duplicates the H1 on every page that does have a hero heading (the normal case).
  • Hard-disable on builder pages — the Bricks/Oxygen philosophy: a built page owns its markup, the checkbox becomes classic-editor-only. Simplest, but removes the option for docs-style sites that genuinely want a uniform title bar above builder content.
  • Hide by default, keep the opt-ins (chosen) — flip the global default to no; the site-wide toggle remains for uniform-title-bar sites, and the per-page checkbox still force-hides when the global is on.

Decision​

Builder pages hide the theme title by default. pages_show_title_on_builder defaults to no (declaration and code fallback both), the global toggle stays available as a site-wide opt-in, and the per-page Hide the page title checkbox keeps working everywhere — it is the control that matters on classic-editor pages, and it still wins on builder pages when the global is enabled.

Why​

Every major builder ecosystem treats the theme title as opt-out-by-design on built pages: Elementor's Canvas/Full-Width templates and starter kits ship with the title hidden, Divi and the Astra/GeneratePress/Kadence companion themes expose a per-page "Disable Title" that their starter sites pre-check, and Bricks/Oxygen render no theme title at all. The common thread is that a builder page is a designed composition whose hero supplies its own H1 — injecting the theme title above it duplicates headings and defaces the design, which is exactly what happened to the existing sites. The one-H1 accessibility goal is better enforced by the ship-gate checklist (the hero must contain the H1) than by forcing a title bar onto every built page. Flipping one default restored every existing site without editing a single page, and no capability was lost: both the global and per-page controls survive.