Heading Tags: How to Structure a Page with H1 to H6

What heading tags are

Heading tags give a page an outline for readers, screen readers and search engines. This guide explains the H1 to H6 levels and how to use them without overthinking it.

Heading tags are the HTML elements h1 to h6 that mark a page's title and its sections. Use one h1 for the main title, h2 for major sections and h3 for subsections, without skipping levels. Google says headings help readers navigate and that it does not need them in perfect order, but they can influence the title it shows in results.

Heading tags are HTML elements that mark the titles on a page. There are six levels, h1 to h6. The h1 has the highest rank and the h6 the lowest, and two headings of the same level have equal rank. Together they form an outline, much like the contents page of a book: one main title, then chapters, then sections inside the chapters.

Choose a level for meaning, not for looks. How large a heading appears on screen is a styling decision made with CSS. Its level says where it sits in the structure. Using a heading tag only to make a line of text bigger blurs the outline, and using a plain styled line where a heading belongs hides a section from anyone who navigates by headings.

How many H1 tags should a page have?

One is the clearest answer. The h1 is the main title of the page and should say what the page is about. Older versions of the HTML specification described a document outline algorithm that allowed several h1 elements. It was never implemented in browsers or assistive technology, so heading rank is what conveys structure, and a single h1 avoids confusion.

Google's documentation points the same way for a practical reason. It builds the title link shown in results from several sources, including the title element, headings such as the h1, and other large, prominent text. If a page has several equally prominent headings, Google says it may use the first one. It suggests making the main title distinctive and the most prominent text on the page, for example with a larger font or by placing it in the first visible h1.

One check is worth making on any site built from a theme or template. Some templates mark up the site name or logo as the h1 on every page, which leaves the real page title as an h2. View the source of a page and confirm that the h1 is the title of that page.

How to structure headings on a page

Plan the outline before you write the content. Write the h1, list the main sections as h2 headings, and add h3 headings only where a section needs parts of its own. This is how it looks for a care guide on a garden furniture maker's site.

Some rules keep the outline sound.

• Do not skip levels when going deeper. An h2 should be followed by an h3, not an h4. The W3C says skipping ranks can be confusing and should be avoided where possible. Going back up is fine, for example from an h4 to the next h2, because that closes a section.
• Make each heading describe what follows. "Introduction" and "More" tell a reader or a screen reader nothing.
• Keep headings short and consistent in style.
• Never leave a heading empty, and do not use one for decoration.
• Use a heading for a section, not for a whole paragraph or a single important sentence.
• Most pages need only h1 to h3. Deep nesting often means a page is trying to do too much.

Reading only the headings should give someone a fair summary of the page. If it does not, rewrite the headings or the page. The guide to how search engines work explains how pages like this are found and stored.

Do heading tags help SEO?

Headings help in modest, specific ways, and Google is careful about what it claims for them. Its SEO Starter Guide advises breaking long content into sections with headings so that users can navigate. It also says that headings in semantic order are great for screen readers, but that Google Search does not mind if they are used out of order, and that there is no ideal number of headings for a page.

Headings still feed the title Google shows for a page, as described above. In its SEO office hours, Google has also said that a clear summary in the form of headings can help when it has difficulty understanding the text, while stressing that this is not a secret path to the top of the results.

In practice, write the h1 and the h2 headings for readers first. Include the main phrase naturally in the h1 and in one subheading where it fits, and do not repeat it in every heading. Keyword stuffing is on Google's list of spam practices, and it reads badly. The keyword research guide shows how to choose the main phrase for a page and the related questions that make good subheadings.

Headings, accessibility and readers

The strongest case for good headings is not about search. The W3C's accessibility guidance explains that headings communicate how content is organised, and that browsers and assistive technologies use them to offer navigation within a page. A screen reader user can move from heading to heading to find the part they want, in the way a sighted reader scans down the page. Skipped levels and decorative headings make that harder.

Readers scan before they read, on any device. Clear headings let them decide in seconds if the page has what they came for, which is useful for the page's owner too.

Common heading mistakes

• Using headings for styling, such as an h3 chosen only because it is the right size.
• Having no h1, or an h1 that is only the site name.
• Two or more equally prominent main headings competing to be the title.
• Vague headings such as "Overview" or "Details".
• Headings written only to carry keywords.
• Losing headings in a redesign. A new template can change heading levels or remove headings from every page at once. Record the existing h1 and h2 text before the rebuild, and use the website redesign SEO checklist to see what else to capture.
• Untranslated or machine-translated headings on a multilingual site. Each language version needs headings written in its own language. The international SEO basics guide covers how language and country versions fit together.

How to check the headings on your pages

1. Open a page and list its headings. Viewing the source and searching for h1 and h2 works, and many browser developer tools and accessibility checkers show a heading list.
2. Read the list as an outline, with nothing else on the page.
3. Confirm that there is one h1, that no levels are skipped on the way down, and that no heading is empty.
4. Check that the main phrase for the page appears naturally in the h1 and in one subheading.
5. Repeat for the other key pages, and for any new template before it goes live.

The guide to running a basic SEO audit yourself includes reviewing titles and headings on key pages as part of a wider check. For help reviewing headings across a larger site, the search engine optimisation service page describes the SEO support Liftup offers.

Questions and answers

What are heading tags?

Heading tags are HTML elements, h1 to h6, that mark the title of a page and the titles of its sections. The h1 is the highest rank and the h6 the lowest. Together they give the page an outline for readers, assistive technology and search engines.

How many H1 tags should a page have?

Use one h1 that names the page. HTML does not forbid more, but browsers and assistive technology rely on heading rank for structure, and Google says it may pick the first heading as the title link when several are equally prominent. One clear h1 avoids that confusion.

How should I structure headings on a page?

Use one h1 for the main title, h2 for the major sections and h3 for parts of a section, going down one level at a time. Make each heading describe what follows, and check that reading the headings alone gives a fair summary of the page.

Do heading tags affect rankings?

Google does not describe headings as a ranking switch. It says headings help users navigate, that they can feed the title it shows in results, and that a clear summary in headings helps when it struggles to understand text. Write them for readers first.

Should headings contain keywords?

Where it fits naturally, yes: the main phrase belongs in the h1 and in one subheading. Do not repeat it in every heading. Keyword stuffing is on Google's list of spam practices and makes the page harder to read.

Is it a problem to skip heading levels?

For accessibility, yes. The W3C says skipping ranks can be confusing and should be avoided where possible. Google's SEO Starter Guide says Google Search does not mind if headings are used out of order, but readers using assistive technology will notice.

Can I use a heading tag to make text bigger?

No. Choose the heading level for its place in the structure and set the size with CSS. A heading used for styling puts a false entry in the outline that screen reader users will meet.