Correct Heading Structure for SEO (H1–H6 Guide)

If ScoutRival’s SEO Score flagged “Fix heading hierarchy,” it means one or more of your pages skips heading levels — for example, an H1 followed immediately by an H3 with no H2 in between. It’s a low-severity but easy fix, and getting it right makes your pages clearer to both Google and the people using screen readers. This guide shows you how, on every major platform, with no coding required.

What is heading structure?

Heading structure is the order in which your page uses its heading tags — H1 through H6 — to organise content from the most important point down to the smallest detail. H1 is the page’s main title, H2s are your major sections, H3s are sub-points inside those sections, and so on down to H6.

Think of it like the outline of a book. The H1 is the book title, the H2s are the chapters, and the H3s are the sections within each chapter. You’d never write a book that jumps from the title straight to “Section 3.2” with no chapter in between — and your web page shouldn’t either. Skipping from H1 to H3 is exactly that kind of jump: the reader (and the search engine) loses track of where they are.

In plain terms: heading structure is the nested hierarchy of H1–H6 tags that tells software how your content is organised. When the levels step down one at a time, the outline is clean. When they skip, the outline breaks.

Why heading structure matters for your SEO

Headings do more than make text bigger. They give your page a machine-readable outline, and that outline does real work:

• Search engines use it to understand your page. Google reads your headings to figure out what each section is about and how sections relate. A logical H1 → H2 → H3 flow makes your topic and structure obvious; a broken one makes it fuzzier.
• AI answer engines lean on it too. Tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI overviews often pull answers from well-structured sections. Clean headings make it easier for them to lift the exact passage that answers a question — and cite you.
• Screen readers depend on it. People who navigate with assistive technology jump between headings to skim a page. A skipped level tells them a heading is missing, which is disorienting. Accessibility and SEO overlap here: fixing one improves the other.

None of this earns a penalty on its own, which is why it’s a low-severity check. But it’s a small, quick polish that removes friction for everyone reading your page. ScoutRival’s SEO Score flags “Fix heading hierarchy” when it detects a skipped level in your headings, so you know exactly which pages to tidy up.

How to check if you have this problem

You can spot most heading problems in about 30 seconds.

The quick manual check: open the page and look at your headings in order, top to bottom. Ask two questions:

1. Is there exactly one H1 (the main title)?
2. Do the other headings step down one level at a time — an H2 before any H3, an H3 before any H4 — or do they jump?

Most website editors let you click any heading and see its level (it’ll say “Heading 1,” “Heading 2,” “H3,” or similar in the toolbar). If you’re comfortable, you can also right-click a heading, choose Inspect, and read the tag — <h1>, <h2>, <h3> — directly.

The tool check: ScoutRival’s SEO Score scans your headings automatically and lists any page where the levels skip. That’s faster than eyeballing every page, especially on a larger site, and it tells you precisely where the jump happens.

How to fix it — step by step

The goal on every platform is the same: one H1, then headings that step down one level at a time. The trick most people miss is that a heading’s level and its size are two different things — you should choose the level for structure and control the size with styling, not the other way around.

WordPress

In the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg):

1. Click the heading block you want to change. A small toolbar appears above it.
2. Click the heading-level control (it shows H1–H6) and pick the correct level so it follows the one above it — never jump from H1 to H3.
3. Keep only one H1, usually your post or page title. If your theme already outputs the title as the H1, make your first in-content heading an H2.
4. If a heading looks too big or small at the right level, don’t change the level to fix it — adjust the size under Styles → Typography or with a little custom CSS.

Wix

In the Wix Editor:

1. Click the text element, then open the text settings panel.
2. Use the “Text theme” dropdown (Title, Heading 2, Heading 3, Paragraph, and so on) to assign the correct heading level in order.
3. Reserve Title / H1 for the single main heading of the page; use Heading 2 for sections and Heading 3 for sub-points.
4. To restyle a heading without changing its level, open Design → Customize and adjust the font and size there.

Squarespace

In the Squarespace editor:

1. Highlight the text in a text block and open the formatting toolbar.
2. Choose the correct level — Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, or Paragraph — so headings step down in order.
3. Use Heading 1 only once per page for the main title; use Heading 2 and 3 for the structure beneath it.
4. If you want a heading to look different, change its appearance in Site Styles (fonts) rather than switching its level.

Webflow

In the Webflow Designer:

1. Select the heading element on the canvas.
2. In the Settings panel (the gear icon), set the Tag to the correct level (H1–H6) so it follows the heading above it in the outline.
3. Use a single H1 per page. Webflow lets you style each heading independently, so you can make an H3 visually large without demoting it to a higher level.
4. Style size, weight and colour in the Style panel — keep the tag reserved for structure.

Shopify

In Shopify, headings live in your theme’s sections and your page/blog content:

1. For page and blog content, use the rich-text editor and its formatting dropdown to set Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 in order.
2. For theme sections (like a homepage banner), check the section settings — many use a fixed heading level, so avoid stacking two H1s across sections.
3. Keep one H1 per page. If a theme section and your content both output an H1, demote one of them to H2.
4. To change how a heading looks, edit the theme’s typography settings under Online Store → Themes → Customize rather than changing levels.

Any other website (custom or unlisted CMS)

If you hand-code your site or use a builder not listed above, edit the heading tags directly in your template:

1. Open your page or template and list the heading tags in order — <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, and so on.
2. Correct any jumps so the levels step down one at a time. Use exactly one <h1> per page. Here’s the pattern to follow:

<h1>The single main heading of this page</h1>
<h2>A major section</h2>
<h3>A sub-point inside that section</h3>
<h2>The next major section</h2>

3. Never change a heading’s level just to make it bigger or smaller — set the size in your CSS instead (for example, h3 { font-size: 1.5rem; }).

How to confirm it’s fixed

1. Re-read the page top to bottom and check that your headings form a clean, nested outline — one H1, then H2s and H3s that step down in order.
2. Use a free heading-outline checker or a browser extension that shows a page’s heading tree; it should read like a tidy table of contents with no gaps.
3. Re-run your ScoutRival SEO audit. The “Fix heading hierarchy” item should now pass, and your On-page pillar score should tick up.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Choosing a heading level by size. Picking H4 because “it looks the right size” is the number-one cause of broken hierarchy. Choose the level for structure; change the size with styling.
• Using more than one H1. Stick to a single H1 per page as the main title. If your theme and your content both output an H1, demote one to H2. (For more on this, see how many H1 tags per page.)
• Skipping levels for design reasons. Never jump from H1 to H3 to get a smaller heading — insert the missing H2 or restyle the H2 to look how you want.
• Using headings for non-heading text. Don’t wrap a bold sentence or a quote in a heading tag just to style it. Headings should introduce a real section.
• Fixing one page and forgetting the rest. Heading problems often come from a shared template, so a fix on one page may need repeating — or the template itself needs correcting.

The bottom line

Correct heading structure is one of the simplest wins on your SEO checklist: use one H1, then step down through H2, H3 and beyond without skipping. A clean heading outline helps Google understand your page, helps AI engines quote you accurately, and makes your content easier for everyone to navigate. Choose levels for meaning, sizes for looks, and you’re done in a few minutes.

Want to see exactly which of your pages have heading and other on-page issues? Run a free SEO Score with ScoutRival and get a prioritised, plain-English to-do list for your whole site.