Headings on Your Website: Getting H1, H2 and H3 Right

Short answer: Give each page one H1 that says what the page is about, use H2s for its main sections and H3s only inside those sections, and never pick a heading level because of how big it looks. Google says heading order doesn't matter for Search and there's no ideal number of headings, but screen-reader users jump through pages by heading, so a clean outline still matters. Auditing a page takes about two minutes with a free browser extension.

What headings actually do

Headings are the outline of a page. In the HTML they're the h1 to h6 elements; in your page builder they're usually a dropdown labelled "Heading 1", "Heading 2" and so on. They do three jobs:

They help readers scan. Google's SEO Starter Guide lists "provide headings to help users navigate your pages" among the traits of well-organized content.
They help assistive technology. MDN's reference on heading elements explains that a common way for screen-reader users to understand a page is to jump from heading to heading, and that most screen readers can list all headings as a table of contents.
They feed Google's understanding of your title. Google's title-link documentation says it looks at heading elements and other prominent text when it creates the clickable title in search results, and suggests making your main title the most prominent text, for example in the first visible h1.

What Google doesn't care about

The Starter Guide is unusually direct here. In its list of things that don't matter, it says that semantic order is "fantastic for screen readers, but from Google Search perspective, it doesn't matter if you're using them out of order," and that there's "no magical, ideal amount of headings." So a page with two H1s won't be punished, and an H4 under an H2 won't sink your ranking.

That doesn't make headings irrelevant. It means you should fix them for readers and accessibility, and stop worrying about heading counts as a ranking trick.

The rules worth following

One H1 per page. MDN notes that multiple H1s are allowed by the HTML standard but not considered best practice; a page should generally have a single H1 describing its content, much like the title element.
Don't skip levels going down. H1, then H2, then H3. MDN warns that jumping from H1 to H3 can leave screen-reader users wondering where the missing heading went. Going back up (from an H3 to the next H2) is normal.
Never use a heading for styling. MDN says it plainly: don't use heading elements to resize text; use CSS. If you want big text in a banner, style a paragraph.
Headings describe what follows. "Our services" is weak. "Furnace repair in Burlington" tells both readers and Google what the section covers.
Don't put your logo or phone number in an H1. Some themes do this on every page, which means every page shares the same main heading.

Where small business sites usually go wrong

Page builders make heading problems easy to create. The usual suspects:

Theme headings in the footer and sidebar. Widgets titled "Contact", "Recent Posts" and "Follow us" often render as H2s or H4s on every page. They clutter the outline.
The hero banner H1 that says "Welcome". The biggest text on the homepage is a greeting, not what you do.
Bold text that should be a heading (and headings that should be bold text). An editor makes a line bold and bigger instead of choosing "Heading 2", so the outline loses a section.
Testimonial names as H3s. Picked for the font size, they turn a customer's name into a section heading.
Accordion FAQs with no heading inside. The question text is a button with no heading level, so it vanishes from the outline.

Audit and fix: a step-by-step

Step 1: Pull the outline

Install a free heading-outline browser extension (several exist for Chrome, Edge and Firefox), or right-click a heading, choose Inspect, and read the tag. Open your five most important pages: homepage, top service or product pages, contact, and one blog post.

Step 2: Write the outline down

List every heading in order, indented by level. It sounds tedious, but on a typical small business page it's 10 to 20 lines.

Step 3: Mark the problems

Flag anything that's not a real section, any skipped level, any page with zero or several H1s, and any heading that doesn't describe what follows.

Step 4: Fix in the right place

Theme-wide problems (footer widgets, logo in an H1) are fixed once in the theme or template settings, or by your developer. Page-level problems are fixed in the editor, block by block, by changing the heading level and, where needed, swapping a heading for styled paragraph text.

Step 5: Recheck after edits

Page builders sometimes reset heading levels when you duplicate a section. Rerun the extension on the pages you changed.

A sample outline for a service page

Here's how a hypothetical HVAC company in Ontario might structure its furnace repair page:

H1 Furnace repair in Burlington and Oakville
- H2 Signs your furnace needs repair
- H2 What happens on a repair visit
  - H3 Diagnosis
  - H3 Parts and repair
  - H3 Safety check before we leave
- H2 Repair or replace?
- H2 Areas we cover
- H2 Frequently asked questions
  - H3 How fast can you come out in winter?
  - H3 Do you repair all furnace brands?
- H2 Book a repair

One H1. Every H2 is a real section a customer might scroll to. H3s only appear under the section they belong to. Reading only the headings, you understand the page.

FAQ

Can my homepage H1 be my business name?

It can, but it's usually a missed opportunity. For a hypothetical plumber, "Hartley Plumbing" says who; "Plumbing repairs and renovations in Moncton" says what and where. Your business name is already in the logo and the title tag.

Should the H1 match the title tag?

They don't need to be identical. Keep them consistent in meaning; Google's title-link guidance describes using prominent headings when it builds search titles, so a clear H1 supports the title you wrote.

My theme uses H1 for the logo. Is that a problem?

For Search, Google says heading counts aren't a ranking issue. For readers using a screen reader, every page then starts with the same heading, which is less helpful. Ask your developer to change the logo to a non-heading element.

Do bilingual pages need separate heading outlines?

Yes. If you publish English and French versions, each language version is its own page and needs its own clean outline in that language.

If your page builder has turned every line into a heading and you'd like the templates fixed rather than each page by hand, let us know which builder you're on.