When a shared name needs attention
A cloned product can retain the wrong model name. Two distinct sizes can also be hard to tell apart in a list. Compare the product facts and the way your store displays choices before renaming either one. A shared name can be intentional when another visible field makes the distinction clear.
A different name is useful when it explains a real difference. Renaming solely to make every string unique does not establish better content or better search performance.
How to find duplicate titles manually
If you're comfortable with WP-CLI, one query lists every exact-match duplicate among published products:
wp db query "SELECT post_title, COUNT(*) AS uses FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type = 'product' AND post_status = 'publish' GROUP BY post_title HAVING uses > 1 ORDER BY uses DESC;"
Adjust the table prefix if yours isn't wp_.
SQL grouping follows the database collation, so letter case and spacing comparisons may differ from the scanner. Include product IDs when investigating a group, and recheck after imports.
How CatalogLift finds it
Each scan compares normalized names of published products. Findings record the group size and a bounded sample of related products. Available sample members link to catalog records in the same store; the view says when it cannot show the full group.
If a change is warranted, approve a manual edit or AI draft, or edit the product in WooCommerce. CatalogLift reads the result back and a scan checks whether the duplicate remains. A finding on an unchanged peer can close because the other product was fixed.
For search titles, see Google’s guidance on descriptive title links. This check does not measure rankings.