How to Use Website Headings to Boost SEO, Accessibility & Readability

Website headings are an important part of any blog or web page. They keep content organised, make it easier for visitors to find the info they’re looking for, and add some all-important structure to your pages.

But there’s more to it than popping headings anywhere and everywhere, or treating headings as just another styling choice, and it’s easy to use them incorrectly. 

This might not seem like much of a biggie, but getting your H1S and H2s muddled (or not using headings at all) can negatively impact: 

• SEO (search engine optimisation) – How easy it is for folks to find your website through Google and AI search
• Readability – How clear, easy, and enjoyable your content is to read
• Accessibility – Whether visually impaired visitors can engage with your website

Don’t worry though, it’s actually pretty easy to pin down your heading structure… once you know how. In this guide, we’ll walk you through what website headings are, why they matter, and how to get them right on your site. 

What Are Website Headings?

Using headings creates a logical outline that’s easy to scan, helping readers quickly determine what the paragraph text is about and whether it’s useful and relevant. This is mega helpful for visitors to your website, and also for search engines, AI platforms, and assistive technologies like screen readers to understand your content.

Understanding Different Heading Types

There are six headings that are unimaginatively yet helpfully named H1–H6, but you’ll probably only ever need to use the first three or four. Here’s where each heading level shows up in content:

• H1 – The main page title
• H2 – Used to divide the main sections of the text
• H3 – Used for subsections of the H2 sections
• H4 – Helpful for dividing extra details within H3 sections
• H5 & H6 – Mostly only used for granular detail in technical or complex content

An H1 heading should only be used once per page, but you can use the others as often as needed.

How to Use Website Headings

No matter what you’re writing about on your website, the same key heading rules always apply. Here are the ones you definitely need to know.

Have One H1 Heading Per Page

Like the headline of a newspaper article or a document title, the H1 heading is the most important one on each page. It should sit at the top of your copy as the page title, be clearly visible as soon as someone lands on it, and make it immediately clear what the page is about. 

Don’t treat H1 as a general heading format, and you should only have one H1 on each page. For other headings, use H2 or H3. Each H1 on your website should also be unique… no reusing H1 headings on multiple pages, please! 

Break Up Big Blocks of Text With Headings

Arriving on a webpage to be confronted by a huge wall of text can be pretty intimidating and make it hard for visitors to find the information they need. This means they’ll probably leave your site to look for their answers elsewhere. 

Breaking up the text with headings makes it easier to skim and digest. Our favourite SEO tool Yoast recommends a maximum of 300 words per section, which is what we stick to when writing content.

Use H2s & H3s to Add Clarity (But Only When Actually Needed)

Just like H1 headings, H2s and H3s should also be clear indicators of the content that each section contains. A sign of great H2 headings is that a visitor can scan them and know exactly what your content is about, so you can easily audit your content by seeing if this is possible.

H3s (and H4s in some cases) should only be used when grouping closely-linked options, points, or stages of a process. If this doesn’t apply to your content, you might need an H2 and a new section instead. 

Arrange Your Headings in Hierarchical Order

Your H1 is the most important heading, and the others should follow in importance. Always order your headings sequentially and don’t skip levels going down (i.e. not going from an H1 to an H3 or an H2 to an H4. It’s okay to skip levels going up (i.e. H4 followed by H2).

Use Headings for Structure, Not Style

Don’t be tempted to use headings to make your web page layout look nicer  — if a heading isn’t adding clarity, it isn’t needed. If you just want text to look bigger or bolder to suit your preferred header design, there should be a tool for that in your website’s formatting. 

A good rule of thumb is: if you were to pull out all the headings on your page as a list, would they make sense as a contents page? If something would look odd — like a testimonial you’ve marked as an H3 — it probably shouldn’t be a heading. 

You can use the HTML Heading Checker tool to see all of your headings listed out, which is also handy for seeing if you have multiple H1s!

Why Are Website Headings Important?

As we’ve already touched on, headings are a key SEO, readability, and accessibility tool. Let’s dig a bit deeper into each area.

For SEO & AI Search

A clear page structure with proper headings and relevant keywords makes it easier for search engines and AI platforms to understand your content and decide whether it contains the answers their users are looking for. 

Keywords are a major part of any SEO strategy because they help direct your ideal audience to your website, where they’ll ideally engage with your content and then invest in your products/services.

Each blog or web page should have a focus keyphrase, which is the main keyword you’ve chosen for your website. Identifying this keyphrase requires some strategic SEO thinking, but at its simplest, it’s the term that your ideal customers are most likely to search when looking for the products or services you offer.

Your focus keyphrase should feature in your H1, H2s, and H3s, as well as the main body of your text. 

Where Keywords Should Appear in Headings

Search Engines like Google and AI platforms like Claude use keywords to determine context and relevance, which is a big factor in deciding which pages to cite or show in search results.

So, your H1 should make it 100% clear what your content is about. Including your focus keyphrase in it lets Google et al know exactly which search results your content should feature in, which is basically the entire goal of SEO.

Adding your keyphrase to H2 headings (and H3s if appropriate for the content) also boosts your content’s SEO power by clarifying exactly what each section of your content covers. This clarity shows your content is relevant and well-organised, which search engine bots reward with better rankings in related searches. 

Adding your focus keyphrase to H2s and H3s is also a smart strategy for getting snippets of your content to appear in the AI overviews at the top of Google search results. Contact us to find out how we can help your site appear in AI searches.

Where Keywords Shouldn’t Appear in Headings

Be careful when adding keywords and focus keyphrases to your content. It’s about quality rather than quantity. Remember these rules when deciding where to place your keywords:

• Only use keyphrases where they fit naturally, make sense, and add clarity to the heading
• Headings need to be different from one another, so don’t use them in every single one
• Only use them if your content is legitimately relevant for related searches (e.g., it’s what the searcher is actually looking for)

For Readers

Every blog and web page on your website needs to be scannable to keep the reader’s attention. If they can’t immediately find what they’re looking for, they’ll probably head elsewhere.

Let’s be honest: These days, the majority of us have a VERY short attention span. We speed-scroll through Reels and TikToks, love a TL;DR, and want everything immediately (if not sooner). 

So it’s probably no surprise that most website visitors don’t read every word on a page. Typically, we look at the title (H1), scan the headings (H2s), and then stick around if we decide the page contains what we need.

If you want to keep your ideal audience on your website (which we’re guessing you do), it’s important to make it as easy as possible for them to understand your content and then decide it would benefit them to read more. And, you guessed it! Having headings is a key way to improve the user experience and make that happen.

For Accessibility

Assistive technology like screen readers relies heavily on heading structures to understand content and make it accessible for anyone using it. 

Without these anchor points, it’s much more difficult for screen reader users to navigate the content and understand its key points, which is pretty rubbish from an inclusivity perspective.

Another reason to care about web accessibility is that it’s closely linked to SEO performance. As a rule, what works well for screen reader technology also works well for search engines, so prioritising inclusivity is a win-win for you, your business, and the folks visiting your website. 

Pair a proper heading structure with other accessibility and SEO tactics (e.g., a strong internal linking strategy and a simple-to-navigate site structure), and you’ll ensure every visitor can engage with your page content while also giving your search rankings a big ol’ boost.

Mastering Website Headings Is Easier Than Most Folks Think

As we’ve (hopefully) shown, getting the headings right on your website is easier than you might have first thought. If you’re still feeling unsure, use this blog as your reference! 

Here are a few examples of where we’ve used headings to boost this content for SEO, readability, and accessibility:

• H1: How to Use Website Headings to Boost SEO, Accessibility & Readability
• H2: Why Are Website Headings Important?
• H3: For SEO & AI Search
• H4: Using Keywords in Headings

Just because you now understand how to create a proper heading structure doesn’t mean you have to do it yourself! 

Book a day or half-day with Good Egg, and we’ll revamp your page structures (and anything else on your website that you’d like to give a glow-up to).