Broken heading structure: H1, H2, H3 rules for SEO and accessibility
Every page needs exactly one H1 and a logical heading hierarchy (H2 sections inside the page, H3 subsections inside H2s). Crawlers and screen readers both use heading structure as a content outline.
Every page needs exactly one H1 and a logical heading hierarchy (H2 sections inside the page, H3 subsections inside H2s). Crawlers and screen readers both use heading structure as a content outline. Heading tags (<h1> through <h6>) provide the document outline. The H1 is the page's primary topic; H2s break it into sections; H3s break sections into sub-sections. The hierarchy must not skip levels (H1 → H3 with no H2 is a violation).
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What it is
Heading tags (<h1> through <h6>) provide the document outline. The H1 is the page's primary topic; H2s break it into sections; H3s break sections into sub-sections. The hierarchy must not skip levels (H1 → H3 with no H2 is a violation).
Why it matters
Search engines parse heading structure to understand what a page is about and what its sub-topics are — this directly informs which queries you can rank for and which sections might appear as featured snippets. For accessibility, screen reader users navigate by heading; a missing H1 means there is no main landmark to jump to.
How to fix it
- One H1 per page, containing the primary keyword. The H1 should be the question or topic the page answers. Multiple H1s are a holdover from poor templates — fix the template, not each page.
- Use H2 for top-level sections. If you can imagine a table of contents for the page, each TOC entry is an H2. Common pattern: 3–7 H2s on a long-form article.
- Never skip levels. Inside an H2, use H3 — not H4. Skipping levels breaks the outline. Most CMSs let editors pick any heading; teach editors to follow the hierarchy.
- Do not use headings for styling. If you want big bold text that is not a section heading, use CSS. Headings are structural, not decorative.
Authoritative sources
- Heading elements — HTML living standard — WHATWG
- WCAG 2.1 — Headings and Labels (2.4.6) — W3C WAI
- Google Search Central documentation — Google
- Schema.org vocabulary — schema.org
- SEO Starter Guide — Google Search Central
- MDN — HTML meta and link elements — Mozilla MDN