Writing for the Web – Why Headings Matter

A single page on your site can cover various topics and/or subtopics. An effective way to not only organize your page’s content but to also assist your readers is by separating each topic with its own heading.

Each heading should be as clear and informative as possible, while also helping to meet the needs of your audience.

Why Headings?

Headings help to make your page or post scannable, accessible, and searchable.

Headings make the page scannable: People rarely read Web pages word for word. Instead, readers scan the page and pick out individual words and sentences. Headings help to highlight key words and sentences and draw readers’ attention to topics and points they might otherwise skim through.

Headings make your page accessible: As per the AODA regulations, all new content has to be AA WCAG compliant. Headings allow screen-reader and assistive technology users to skim the structure of a page and navigate to or skip over sections

Headings make your page searchable: A good heading makes your page searchable in that it contains keywords that are easily detected by search engines.

By creating scannable, accessible, and searchable headings, you are more likely to attract more traffic to your site/webpage.

How to do it

Below is a list of criteria that should be met by editors when creating appropriate, relevant headings for their web content

• Be descriptive
• Keep it short (about 8 words)
• Don’t try to be clever/wordy/humorous – just be straight to the point
• Make them big and bold
• Nest them properly (i.e.: you should not jump from H3 to H1 – this is not good for accessibility)
• Use keywords closer to the front of your title as you can
• Don’t sacrifice usability for searchability. In other words, if it doesn’t make sense to use headings, if they will only confuse your visits, then don’t do it!

The seven points mentioned above are easy to apply when creating your headings and organizing your webpage content. Following these steps will help your page stay organized, and keep your viewers interested!

Example for Structuring Content with Headings:

If you’re unsure of how to structure your page’s content with headings, below is a list of steps that can be applied as you organize your ideas.

• Introduction line: hook your readers and tell them why they should read your post
• Main point one: Header (use H2)
• Content: short paragraph and perhaps a place for bullets
• Main point two: Header (use H2)
• Content: short paragraph and perhaps a place for bullets
• Conclusion header (use H2): could be “Have any questions?” or “for more information…”
• Conclusion: you don’t have to reiterate your main points, but you need something here to wrap it all up
• Link to more information or call to action – what did you want people to do at the end of this post?

In Conclusion…

When your webpage content is clearly and properly divided, you will attract more people to your site, and make their experience easy too! Always keep in mind that you are doing so much more than organizing your page.

For more tips on writing for the web, check out our Writing Great Posts workshop recap.