Heading Checker (H1–H6)

Headings are how Google understands the structure of your content. A page with one H1 ("My Page Title"), three H2s for major sections, and H3s under each is easy to parse. A page with five H1s, no H2s, and H3s scattered randomly is noise.

This tool extracts every heading from a page, shows the visual hierarchy as a tree, and flags structural problems: multiple H1s on one page (the most common mistake), skipped heading levels (jumping H1 → H3), empty headings (often caused by CSS-styled divs that weren't converted), and headings rendered as images without alt text.

1. One H1 per page. Always. The H1 should match or closely match your <title> tag and your primary target query.

2. No skipped levels. H1 → H2 → H3, in order. Don't jump from H1 to H3 because "we need a small heading here". Use CSS to style the size.

3. Headings should describe their section. "Why?" or "Read more" are bad H2s. "Why on-page SEO matters most" is a good H2.

4. Don't style non-headings as headings. If something looks like a heading visually but is a <div>, screen readers and Google miss it. And vice versa, don't use <h2> for visual emphasis on non-section text.

5. Include your primary query in the H1, secondary queries in H2s. Not as keyword stuffing, as natural section labels.

On a recent client site, we audited the top 10 ranking pages for 50 target queries. The pattern was consistent:

• Top-3 ranking pages had 1 H1, average 4–7 H2s, structured H3s under most H2s.

• Pages ranking 4-10 averaged 1-2 H1s, fewer H2s, and frequent skipped levels.

• Pages ranking below 10 averaged 3+ H1s and chaotic heading structure.

After fixing heading structure (no other change) on one set of 40 pages, average ranking improved from #14 to #8 over 6 weeks. Heading structure isn't a magic bullet, but it's a cheap, low-risk fix that consistently moves rankings.