Checks / Titles, headings and schema
Headings skip a level
Jumping from H1 to H3 breaks the outline that crawlers use to find answers.
heading_order · Titles, headings and schema · Notice
What triggers it
A page goes down a heading level and skips one, for example an H1 followed by an H3.
What to change
Use H2 under H1, H3 under H2.
Example
HTML to put in the page:
<h1>Blue trail running shoes</h1>
<h2>Sizing</h2>
<h3>Half sizes</h3>How common it is
We have not measured how common this is on a sample of sites. Counts appear here when a study covers it.
About this check
| Check ID | heading_order |
|---|---|
| Report section | Titles, headings and schema |
| Severity | Notice |
| How it is decided | Measured: read directly from the page or the server's response. |
| Added | Before 19 Oct 2026 (versions 1 and 2), or a site-wide check with no version date yet |
| Status | Measured in every report |
| Report gives the code | No, the fix is described in words |
Related checks
- FAQ markup on most pages
- More than one H1
- Images without alt text
- Declared language differs from the text
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