One H1 stating the topic, H2s for the major sections, H3s nested under the H2 they belong to, and no skipped levels. Headings are an outline, not a styling tool — if a level looks wrong, fix the CSS, not the hierarchy.
One H1, and check your theme actually agrees
The H1 states what the page is about, once. On a strain page that is the strain and product form; on a guide, the question being answered. Simple in theory. In practice, WordPress and page-builder themes sabotage it constantly: a logo wrapped in an H1 on every page, a widget title in an H1, a hero banner H1 followed by a second H1 in the content area. View source on a few pages before assuming you are fine. If the same H1 text appears site-wide, that is the theme talking, and no amount of careful writing fixes it until the template does. The repair is usually one edit: demote the offending element to a div or span, and let each page's own content carry the H1.
Nest by meaning, never by font size
H2 marks a major section. H3 marks a sub-point of the H2 above it, not a slightly-less-important thought floating on its own. The test is whether you could read only the headings and still follow the argument, the way you would skim an outline. Two rules keep it honest. Don't skip levels — an H4 directly under an H2 breaks the outline for crawlers and screen readers. And don't choose a heading level because of how it renders. Every level can be styled to look like any other; the tag carries the meaning, the CSS carries the look.
There is a search payoff hiding in this discipline. Question-shaped H2s and H3s are what featured snippets and People Also Ask answers get pulled from, and a clean hierarchy makes each heading-plus-paragraph pair an extractable unit. Sloppy nesting does not just annoy screen readers; it makes your best answers harder to lift.
Worked example: a strain page outline
A well-structured page for Blue Dream feminized seeds reads like this in heading-only view:
- H1: Blue Dream Feminized Seeds
- H2: About Blue Dream
- H2: Genetics and lineage
- H3: Blueberry parent
- H3: Haze parent
- H2: Growing Blue Dream
- H3: Indoor
- H3: Outdoor
- H2: Effects and flavor
- H2: Frequently asked questions
- H3: one per question
A reader scanning for grow info lands in two seconds. A crawler gets the same map. Nothing clever, which is the point — heading structure is a discipline you apply, not a technique you invent per page.
Key takeaways
- One H1 per page; audit the theme, which is the usual violator.
- H3s belong to the H2 above them, like an outline.
- Never skip levels, and never pick a level for its font size.
- Headings alone should tell the story of the page.
Frequently asked questions
Can a page have more than one H1?
HTML5 technically allows it, but keep one. A single H1 states the topic; extra ones usually come from a logo or widget your theme wrapped in a heading tag. Check the template before blaming the writers.
Do headings need keywords?
They need to describe the section, and a good description usually contains the natural terms on its own. Write the label first, then check whether the obvious phrase made it in. Forcing the same keyword into six H2s reads as exactly what it is.
Is it okay to skip from H2 to H4?
Nothing breaks, but the outline stops making sense to crawlers and screen readers alike. Levels express hierarchy, not styling. If the H4 look is what you want, restyle H3 with CSS instead of skipping a level.
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