Write headings that help someone navigate the article.

Give a heading a job

A heading should name the subject or question in the section below it. “Introduction”, “The future” and “Why it matters” may be usable in context, but a page made entirely from labels like those gives a scanning reader little help.

W3C’s page-structure guidance explains that headings organize content and can support navigation with assistive technology. Making text large or bold does not give it the same structural role as a heading element. Use the appropriate heading style in your editor, not just visual formatting.

An outline before and after

Fictional outline before: “The problem / The solution / Next steps”. The article is about checking an app export.

A more informative outline is: “Choose a representative sample / Open the export outside the app / Compare notes, links and attachments / Record the gaps before moving more work”. It tells someone what the method contains before they read the paragraphs.

The second outline is not automatically better for every subject. A short opinion piece may need fewer headings. Choose headings for the real sections, not to divide the text into equal-sized blocks.

Keep the levels meaningful

Use the main page heading for the article. Use the next level for its main sections, and a deeper level only for a subsection within one of those sections. Keep sibling sections at the same level. Do not choose a heading level only because its default font is the size you want.

W3C recommends a logical nesting of headings. Review the outline in your publishing system, where available. On a website, the visual size can be styled separately from the HTML level. This guide’s main title and section headings use that separation.

Check the words without the paragraphs

Make a temporary list of the headings. Can someone tell what the article explains and where to find a specific answer? Replace a vague label with the concrete topic, but do not cram a whole paragraph into one heading.

Read each section after its heading. If the heading promises a checklist but the section gives only an opinion, change the text or the promise. A precise heading is useful only when the content beneath it matches.

Before you publish

• The page has a clear main heading.
• Main sections use consistent heading levels.
• Subsections are nested within the right parent section.
• Heading text describes the content beneath it.
• The outline remains useful without visual decoration.
• Links and a table of contents use understandable labels.

Use this next

• Edit the rest of your article
• Match the search title to the page