Duplication In Title Tags With Image Alt Tag Is Not An Issue: Google

Firstly, yes, I know, it is an image alt attribute but as John Mueller of Google said on Twitter having your title tag read exactly the same as your image alt tag on the same page is not an issue - it might be duplicate but it is not an issue for Google search.

Google SEO Now Harder Over The Past Few Years?

There is an interesting thread starting up at WebmasterWorld talking about what has changed specifically with SEO around Google over the past few years. Specifically, why techniques they used back in 2016 no longer work in 2018.