H1, H2 and H3 heading structure: a guide to structuring articles that are easy to read

A tidy heading structure uses one H1 as the page title, H2s for the main sections and H3s for the details within a section. Readers find information faster, and screen reader users can move between sections without listening to the whole page.

Google is more relaxed about rankings than SEO advice often suggests. Google's SEO guide says headings in the wrong order are not a problem for Google Search. So tidy your headings for readers, and do not expect a heading fix alone to lift an article that does not yet answer what people need.

What H1, H2 and H3 do

Each level has a different job. The easiest way to tell them apart is to think of a book: the H1 is the book title, the H2 a chapter, the H3 a subsection.

Level	Job	Example
H1	Names the topic of the whole page	How to choose hosting for a business website
H2	Divides the topic into main sections	Hosting types and their limits
H3	Breaks one section down into details	Shared hosting

Most blog themes show the article title as the H1 automatically, so the body can start at H2. Check your theme once to be sure.

Misconceptions that need correcting

Several heading rules circulate as Google requirements, although the documentation says otherwise.

Belief	What the source says
Two H1s confuse Google	Google's John Mueller has said you can use H1s as often as you like. The HTML standard allows it as well. MDN, Mozilla's reference for web developers, still recommends one H1 per page as good practice.
Heading order determines ranking	Google's SEO guide says the wrong order is not a problem for Google Search. The correct order is still useful for screen reader users.
There is an ideal number of headings	The same guide says there is no ideal number of headings.
There is an ideal heading length	The Google documentation we checked sets no length limit for headings. Make each one as long as clarity requires.
Every heading must contain the keyword	Filling a page with keywords to excess counts as keyword stuffing under Google's spam policies.

One thing is still worth getting right: Google lists heading elements such as the H1 among the sources of the title shown in search results. Its documentation also recommends putting the main title in the first visible H1, so clear headings still pay off directly there.

How to build an outline before you write

Headings are easiest to sort out before the first paragraph is written. Moving a section in an outline takes a few minutes, while moving it after the article is finished means reworking the flow of the piece.

1. Write down the reader's main question and turn it into the article title (H1).
2. List the follow-up questions the article must answer. Each one is a candidate H2.
3. Check each H2. If a section covers several different things, split it into H3s.
4. Read all the headings from top to bottom. A reader should be able to guess what the article covers from that list.
5. Merge any overlapping H2s, then start writing the content.

Below is an outline for a made-up article about choosing hosting. Each H2 answers one question, and H3s appear only in sections that really have several details.

Practical rules for each level

H1

Use one H1 that names the topic of the page. Include the term readers search for in a natural way, and keep it consistent with the title tag. The two need not match word for word, but they must be about the same thing. Google may change the title shown in search results if the title tag does not reflect the page.

H2

Each H2 stands for one section that makes sense on its own. Make the heading say what that section covers. "Renewal costs to check" is more useful than "Costs" or "Other important points". Related terms will appear on their own when the H2s are written to answer the reader's questions.

H3

An H3 is only needed when an H2 splits into several details. A section that takes only two or three paragraphs rarely needs splitting. A lone H3 under an H2 is also suspect, because there is nothing for it to be separated from.

Common heading mistakes

• Using headings to make text bigger. MDN recommends setting font size with CSS and using headings to mark structure.
• Skipping levels, for example going straight from H2 to H4. The W3C, the body that sets web standards, says skips like this are confusing and should be avoided.
• Repeating the same keyword in every heading. The table of contents stops telling the reader anything, and the pattern comes close to keyword stuffing.
• Using headings that carry no meaning, such as "Introduction" or "Conclusion". The table of contents tells the reader nothing about those sections.
• Letting the title tag and the H1 talk about different things.

Article headings and landing page headings serve different goals

The structural rules are the same, but the wording follows what the visitor needs. An article reader is looking for an answer. A landing page visitor is weighing up a service. Here is how the two compare for one topic: website design services in Karawang, West Java.

Aspect	Blog article	Landing page
What the H1 says	A question or topic	The service and who it is for
Example H1	How much does website design cost in Karawang?	Website design services for businesses in Karawang
What the H2s say	The reader's follow-up questions	Service scope, work process, pricing, project examples

How to check the headings of a published article

You do not need a paid tool to check a single page. Open the article in Chrome, press F12, choose the Console tab, then paste the following command.

copy([...document.querySelectorAll('h1,h2,h3')].map(h => h.tagName + ': ' + h.textContent.trim()).join('\n'))

The list of headings is copied to your clipboard, ready to paste into any document. Headings from the menu or footer are picked up too, so ignore those outside the article body. To check many pages at once, use a crawler such as Screaming Frog.

Once you have the list, answer these four questions in order.

Checklist before an article goes live

• The page has only one H1, and it matches the topic.
• The H1 and the title tag are about the same thing.
• Each H2 covers something different.
• Each H3 sits under the right H2, with no skipped levels.
• Keywords appear naturally and are not repeated in every heading.
• No text has been made a heading just to make it bigger.
• The table of contents generated from the headings makes sense without reading the paragraphs.

Heading checks are best run alongside other technical checks. The pre-launch checklist for a business website covers metadata, links and forms. If you are building a new website, you can also plan this structure from the start of website development.