A practical checklist for heading structure

The gap between knowing this and actually doing it is where most teams lose ground. Run through this the next time heading structure comes up.

The cost of retrofitting accessibility is several times the cost of building it in. Most teams find the first pass takes an afternoon and the maintenance takes minutes a month.

The checklist

• Headings are how many people navigate a page
• One h1, then no skipped levels
• Do not choose heading levels for their font size
• Someone is named as the owner
• There is a date to review it again

The reason this keeps coming up

Headings are how many people navigate a page. Small and consistent beats large and occasional here. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

How to tell if yours is fine

Accessibility work almost always improves the experience for people who have no impairment at all. Three things worth confirming about heading structure before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• One h1, then no skipped levels — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

The point is not perfection, it is knowing which of these you have consciously chosen to skip.