Skipped H2 headings
Headings work as an outline, so heading levels should be used in order rather than skipped. Silktide reports pages that jump straight to smaller headings without using a second-level heading at all.
In , heading levels run from <h1> (most important) to <h6> (least). This check finds pages that use <h3> or lower while having no <h2> anywhere:
<!-- h2 skipped: the outline jumps from h1 to h3 -->
<h1>Our services</h1>
<h3>Web design</h3>
<!-- Levels used in order -->
<h1>Our services</h1>
<h2>Web design</h2>
Why this matters
Search engines read heading levels to understand how a page's content is organised and which topics are most important. Skipping a level muddles that outline, so keywords in your subheadings carry less weight than they could.
A coherent outline also helps people using , who commonly navigate by heading level; a jump from <h1> to <h3> suggests a section is missing.
Skipped levels usually happen when a heading is chosen for its visual size rather than its meaning - an <h4> picked because it "looks right". Use the correct level and adjust its appearance with instead.
How to fix it
- Change the page's most important subheadings from
<h3>(or lower) to<h2>, keeping each level's children one step below it. - If the new level looks wrong, restyle it in your stylesheet rather than reaching for a smaller heading tag.
- In most content management systems this means choosing "Heading 2" in the editor's format menu instead of "Heading 3" or "Heading 4".
How Silktide tests this
- Find every heading on the page.
- If the page uses
<h3>,<h4>,<h5>, or<h6>, check whether it also contains at least one<h2>with content (empty<h2>tags do not count). - Flag the page once if it has lower-level headings but no
<h2>. Pages with no headings below<h2>pass automatically.
Note this check looks for a missing <h2> level across the page as a whole; it does not flag every individual out-of-order heading.