Headings give structure to digital communications. Think outline or hierarchy. Headings should be used to separate your content into meaningful sections. Headings are a more dynamic way for many to navigate using screen reader software and keyboard shortcuts. Screen readers need headings “coded” as headings in order to be recognized.
Main Considerations
- How many headings to use is a judgement call. Use headings in appropriate places, but use them sparingly. Too many headings can make content more difficult to navigate, just focus on providing titles for section differentiation. Lengthy content should almost always have headings to help users navigate.
- Headings should be concise, and paragraphs or sentences should rarely if ever be used as headings.
- Do not use use bold, italicize, underline, etc. to define sections, use properly styled headings. Each platform is a little different in how this is done.
- Heading levels are meant to be heirarchial, so use properly nested headings by not skipping levels (e.g. a level 4 heading nested under a level 2 heading)
- Also note that breaking up content with headings makes it easier to read for all users. It is also important in how search engines decide to rank pages.
Examples
There are six different levels of headings; H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6. They should be used in order from most important to least important. Levels of subheadings should be underneath main headings, and so on.
For example:
- H1
- H2
- H3
- H2
- H3
- H4
- H5
- H5
- H4
- H4
- H3
- H4
- H3
- H2
- H2
...and so on.
H1 tags should contain the most important concept for the content, generally the title, and in rare circumstances maybe some other relevant info. This should also be the first heading, doing so will make sure it is the first heading that a screen reader user finds. Generally only one H1 should be used.