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Field Guide

Heading Structure

Heading structure is the outline of your page — one H1 for the main title, H2s for the major sections, H3s for sub-points beneath them — and both screen readers and search engines rely on that outline to understand how your content is organised.

Why it matters for your site

Screen reader users navigate by jumping between headings, the way a sighted reader skims for bold section titles. A well-structured page lets them get an overview in seconds and jump straight to the part they want. A page with no headings, or headings used just to make text big, forces them to wade through everything line by line.

Search engines use the heading outline to understand which parts of a page are most important and how topics relate. A clear hierarchy reinforces what the page is about; a jumbled one muddies it.

Headings also serve every visitor who skims rather than reads — which is almost everyone. A scannable outline is the difference between a page that looks digestible and one that looks like a wall of text.

How to check it yourself

  1. Read down your page and ask: is there one clear main title, then logical section headings beneath it? The structure should make sense as a plain outline, like a table of contents.
  2. Install a free browser extension like HeadingsMap, which shows your page's heading outline in a panel and highlights any levels that are skipped or out of order.
  3. Check that headings are real headings (H1–H6 tags), not just text made large and bold with styling — assistive technology can only navigate true heading tags.
  4. On macOS, turn on VoiceOver and use the rotor (Control+Option+U) to list headings. If the list is empty or nonsensical, that's what a screen reader user experiences.
  5. The Kweri audit flags a missing H1, multiple H1s, and skipped heading levels in the Technical SEO section of your report.

Technical detail

A page should have exactly one H1 — the main title that describes the whole page. Multiple H1s blur which message is primary; no H1 leaves the page's purpose ambiguous.

Heading levels should not skip: an H2 can be followed by an H3, but jumping from an H2 straight to an H4 breaks the implied outline. Screen readers expose these levels as a nested structure, and a skipped level reads as a gap.

Headings communicate structure, not appearance. If you want large text that isn't a section heading, style a paragraph — don't reach for an H1. Conversely, a real section heading should be a heading tag even if you want it visually small.

This sits under WCAG 2.2 Success Criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships): structure conveyed visually must also be available programmatically.

For the guidance on writing and structuring headings, see Nielsen Norman Group — Headings as pickup lines →

For the accessibility specification for heading structure, see W3C WAI — Headings tutorial →

Related

Scannability

People scan web pages rather than read them — structure content so scanners still get the point.

F-Pattern Reading

Readers often scan in an F shape — strong across the top, weaker across a second line, then down the left.

See Heading Structure on your own site

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