Headings are treated as styling by most people building pages, which is why so many sites have three H1s and jump from H2 to H4. They are structure, and both screen readers and search engines rely on them.
Use one H1 per page describing what the page is about, then H2s for main sections and H3s for subsections beneath them. Do not skip levels and do not choose a heading tag for its size. Headings form the outline that screen readers navigate by and that search engines use to understand a page's structure.
The rules
- One H1 per page, describing the page as a whole.
- H2 for main sections, H3 for subsections within them.
- Do not skip levels. H2 to H4 leaves a gap in the outline.
- Choose the level by structure, then style it with CSS.
- Do not use headings for emphasis on a short line of text.
The last two are where most sites go wrong: someone wants big text, so they use an H2. The visual result is right and the document outline is now nonsense.
Why it matters beyond SEO
- Screen readers let users jump between headings to navigate. A broken outline makes a page genuinely hard to use.
- Search engines use headings to understand structure and section topics.
- AI assistants extract answers by section, and clear question-form headings make a page far easier to quote.
- Readers scan headings before deciding to read. Most people never read a page top to bottom.
Writing headings that work
| Weak | Better | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | What a website project actually involves | Says what the section covers |
| Pricing | How much does a website cost? | Matches how people search |
| Benefits | What you get for the money | Concrete |
| More info | How the process works | Descriptive |
Question-form headings are worth using where they match real searches. They map directly onto how people phrase queries, and they make a section easy for an assistant to lift as an answer.
Checking yours
View the outline with a browser extension or by searching the page source for heading tags. You are looking for exactly one H1, no skipped levels, and headings that would make sense read alone as a table of contents.
If the list of headings does not describe the page, neither will a search engine's understanding of it.
Frequently asked questions
Can a page have more than one H1?
HTML5 technically permits it within sectioning elements, and in practice one H1 per page is clearer for screen readers and search engines. There is no benefit to multiple H1s and a real cost in ambiguity.
Do headings affect SEO?
Yes, modestly. They help search engines understand page structure and section topics. They are not a strong ranking factor on their own, but they matter more for AI assistants, which extract answers section by section.
Should headings contain keywords?
Naturally, where the section genuinely covers that topic. Forcing terms into every heading reads badly and helps nothing. Descriptive headings that happen to contain relevant words are the goal.
Is it bad to skip heading levels?
Yes. Going from H2 to H4 leaves a gap in the document outline, which is confusing for screen reader users navigating by heading. Choose the level for structure and control the size with CSS.
How many headings should a page have?
As many as the content has genuine sections, typically one every 200 to 400 words in a long article. Too few makes a wall of text; too many fragments the page into pieces too small to be useful.