I believe that the Roots starter theme has a fantastic function to get the current page title. It is very hackable, covers all bases, and can be easily used with the wp_title
hook.
/**
* Page titles
*/
function roots_title() {
if (is_home()) {
if (get_option('page_for_posts', true)) {
echo get_the_title(get_option('page_for_posts', true));
} else {
_e('Latest Posts', 'roots');
}
} elseif (is_archive()) {
$term = get_term_by('slug', get_query_var('term'), get_query_var('taxonomy'));
if ($term) {
echo $term->name;
} elseif (is_post_type_archive()) {
echo get_queried_object()->labels->name;
} elseif (is_day()) {
printf(__('Daily Archives: %s', 'roots'), get_the_date());
} elseif (is_month()) {
printf(__('Monthly Archives: %s', 'roots'), get_the_date('F Y'));
} elseif (is_year()) {
printf(__('Yearly Archives: %s', 'roots'), get_the_date('Y'));
} elseif (is_author()) {
$author = get_queried_object();
printf(__('Author Archives: %s', 'roots'), $author->display_name);
} else {
single_cat_title();
}
} elseif (is_search()) {
printf(__('Search Results for %s', 'roots'), get_search_query());
} elseif (is_404()) {
_e('Not Found', 'roots');
} else {
the_title();
}
}