Heading Elements

Attributes

These elements include the global attributes.

Usage notes

• Heading information may be used by user agents, for example, to construct a table of contents for a document automatically.
• Do not use lower levels to decrease heading font size: use the CSS font-size property instead.
• Avoid skipping heading levels: always start from <h1>, next use <h2> and so on.
• You should consider avoiding using <h1> more than once on a page. See Defining sections in Using HTML sections and outlines for more information.

Examples

All headings

The following code shows all the heading levels, in use.

<h1>Heading level 1</h1>
<h2>Heading level 2</h2>
<h3>Heading level 3</h3>
<h4>Heading level 4</h4>
<h5>Heading level 5</h5>
<h6>Heading level 6</h6>

Here is the result of this code:

Example page

The following code shows a few headings with some content under them.

<h1>Heading elements</h1>
<h2>Summary</h2>
<p>Some text here...</p>

<h2>Examples</h2>
<h3>Example 1</h3>
<p>Some text here...</p>

<h3>Example 2</h3>
<p>Some text here...</p>

<h2>See also</h2>
<p>Some text here...</p>

Here is the result of this code:

Accessibility concerns

Navigation

A common navigation technique for users of screen reading software is jumping from heading to heading to quickly determine the content of the page. Because of this, it is important to not skip one or more heading levels. Doing so may create confusion, as the person navigating this way may be left wondering where the missing heading is.

Don't

<h1>Heading level 1</h1>
<h3>Heading level 3</h3>
<h4>Heading level 4</h4>

Do

<h1>Heading level 1</h1>
<h2>Heading level 2</h2>
<h3>Heading level 3</h3>

Nesting

Headings may be nested as subsections to reflect the organization of the content of the page. Most screen readers can also generate an ordered list of all the headings on a page, which can help a person quickly determine the hierarchy of the content:

1. h1 Beetles
   1. h2 Etymology
   2. h2 Distribution and Diversity
   3. h2 Evolution
      1. h3 Late Paleozoic
      2. h3 Jurassic
      3. h3 Cretaceous
      4. h3 Cenozoic
   4. h2 External Morphology
      1. h3 Head
         1. h4 Mouthparts
      2. h3 Thorax
         1. h4 Prothorax
         2. h4 Pterothorax
      3. h3 Legs
      4. h3 Wings
      5. h3 Abdomen

When headings are nested, heading levels may be "skipped" when closing a subsection.

• Headings • Page Structure • WAI Web Accessibility Tutorials
• MDN Understanding WCAG, Guideline 1.3 explanations
• Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.1 | W3C Understanding WCAG 2.0
• MDN Understanding WCAG, Guideline 2.4 explanations
• Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.1 | W3C Understanding WCAG 2.0
• Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.6 | W3C Understanding WCAG 2.0
• Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.10 | W3C Understanding WCAG 2.0

Labeling section content

Another common navigation technique for users of screen reading software is to generate a list of sectioning content and use it to determine the page's layout.

Sectioning content can be labeled using a combination of the aria-labelledby and id attributes, with the label concisely describing the purpose of the section. This technique is useful for situations where there is more than one sectioning element on the same page.

Example

<header>
  <nav aria-labelledby="primary-navigation">
    <h2 id="primary-navigation">Primary navigation</h2>
    <!-- navigation items -->
  </nav>
</header>

<!-- page content -->

<footer>
  <nav aria-labelledby="footer-navigation">
    <h2 id="footer-navigation">Footer navigation</h2>
    <!-- navigation items -->
  </nav>
</footer>

In this example, screen reading technology would announce that there are two <nav> sections, one called "Primary navigation" and one called "Footer navigation". If labels were not provided, the person using screen reading software may have to investigate each nav element's contents to determine their purpose.

• Using the aria-labelledby attribute
• Labeling Regions • Page Structure • W3C WAI Web Accessibility Tutorials

Specifications

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

See also

• <p>
• <div>
• <section>