Screen readers rely on a page’s headings forming a logical, unbroken hierarchy — an H1 followed by H2s, each with their own H3s where needed — and skipping levels, or using multiple H1s on one page, breaks that structure in a way that’s invisible to sighted visitors but genuinely disorienting for someone navigating by heading structure alone.
Check your page’s heading structure using a browser extension
A free heading-outline browser extension shows every heading on a page in its actual code order and level, regardless of how it looks visually. Levels jumping unexpectedly (an H2 straight to an H4) or more than one H1 on the same page confirms a genuine structural problem.
Heading hierarchy correction
Skipped heading levels and stray H1s corrected into one logical, unbroken hierarchy.
- Full backup taken before we start
- If we can’t fix it, you get your money back
- We never ask for your own password
This or something else?
| Your page’s headings skip levels or use multiple H1s, breaking the logical hierarchy | This fix covers it |
| Your headings are structurally fine but the wording itself is vague or unhelpful | Heading structure rewrite for extractability, in the Metadata & Content Generation category, a wording rather than structural fix |
| Your headings use the wrong HTML tags entirely (styled text pretending to be a heading, or vice versa) | Semantic HTML remediation for extractability, in the Schema & Machine Readability category |
| You want a table of contents built from your existing, correctly structured headings | Table of contents implementation, in the Content Implementation category |
What you are seeing
- A heading-outline tool showing skipped levels or multiple H1s on one page
- Screen reader testing revealing a confusing or illogical heading structure
- Headings chosen for visual size rather than genuine hierarchical meaning
- The issue possibly stemming from a page builder that assigns heading levels by style rather than structure
Common causes
- A page builder or theme assigning heading levels based on visual size rather than logical document structure
- Content pasted from another source retaining its original, inconsistent heading levels
- Multiple content sections each independently starting from H2 without considering the page’s overall hierarchy
- A CMS default applying H1 to elements (like a widget title) that shouldn’t hold that level
- A theme building the site title into the header as an H1, competing with the actual page content’s own H1 further down
What we do
- Map the current heading structure across affected pages
- Identify every instance of skipped levels or multiple H1s
- Correct heading levels to form a logical, unbroken hierarchy
- Verify the visual appearance is preserved even as underlying levels change
- Test the corrected structure using a heading-outline tool
- Check a representative sample of page types for the same pattern
What is included
- Heading hierarchy corrected to a logical, unbroken structure
- Verified preserved visual appearance despite underlying level changes
- Testing using a heading-outline tool
- The pre-fix backup, kept for 30 days
Not included
- Rewriting heading wording itself, a separate, related fix if that’s also needed
- Correcting non-semantic markup (styled text used as fake headings), a separate, related fix
- Broader accessibility issues beyond heading hierarchy specifically
- Ongoing correction as new content is published with the same underlying pattern
Questions about this fix
Will fixing this change how my headings look visually?
No, we preserve the visual styling while correcting the underlying, logical level — a heading that displays as large, bold text can keep looking that way even as its actual HTML level is corrected.
Why would a page builder cause this in the first place?
Many page builders let you choose a heading's visual size independently of its semantic level, which makes it easy to end up with, say, a big, prominent H4 and a small, subtle H2 — visually backwards from a genuinely logical structure.
Does having multiple H1s on a page actually matter that much?
Yes, for both accessibility and how search engines parse your page — a single, clear H1 establishing the page's main topic is the expected, logical structure, and multiple competing H1s undermine that clarity for both.
How would I notice this myself without a special tool?
It's genuinely hard to notice visually, since heading levels don't necessarily correspond to obvious visual differences — a heading-outline browser extension is the practical way to see the actual underlying structure.
Is this the same as the heading wording rewrite service?
No — that service addresses whether heading text itself is specific and descriptive; this fix addresses the structural hierarchy of heading levels, which is a separate, more technical concern.
Related fixes
If this is the second time this year
A bad update breaking the site is a symptom of updates not being tested first. Care plans run every update on a staging clone before it reaches your live site, which is the actual fix for this happening again.
Your access, your rules
Create a separate admin account for us and delete it when we are done. For anything else, we get in touch and agree a method — never a form field on this site, never by reply to an email.
We back up first, always
Before anything is touched we take a full backup and keep it for 30 days. If a fix goes wrong, we put the site back exactly as it was.
If it is not what you bought
If the problem turns out smaller than what you ordered, we refund the difference. If it is bigger, we stop and send a quote before doing any extra work.
If we cannot fix it
You get back what we received. Diagnosis is on us — you only pay when the problem is actually solved. The payment processor takes its fee before the money reaches us, so we never hold it and it is not ours to return. That is true here as everywhere else.
If it comes back
Reply within seven days of delivery and we put it back on the bench at no cost. The fix is not finished until it holds.
What we are responsible for
If something goes wrong with a fix, our responsibility is limited to what you paid for it. We take a full backup first so mistakes can be undone, and we tell you before doing anything outside what you bought.