Get your HEADing on straight

HTML header structure is an essential aspect of creating a web page that is both user-friendly and optimized for search engines. The header structure is the backbone of the page, providing a clear hierarchy of content and improving the accessibility of the site. In this article, we'll explore the reasons why using proper HTML header structure is essential.

One of the most important reasons to use proper HTML header structure is to improve the accessibility of your website. Headers provide a clear structure for the content on the page, making it easier for screen readers to navigate. Screen readers rely on the header structure to understand the hierarchy of the content and provide users with an accurate representation of the page.

Using proper HTML header structure can also improve your website's search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines use header tags to understand the structure of your content and determine what is most important on the page. By using header tags properly, you can signal to search engines what content is most important and improve your chances of ranking higher in search results.

HTML header structure provides semantic meaning to your content. Semantic meaning refers to the meaning behind the words on your page. By using header tags to structure your content, you can provide additional meaning to your text that search engines and screen readers can use to better understand the content. This improves the overall quality of your site and makes it more valuable to both users and search engines.

Finally, proper HTML header structure helps with content organization. By using header tags, you can break your content up into sections and subsections, making it easier to organize and manage. This is particularly important for longer pieces of content, such as blog posts or articles, where proper organization is essential to keeping readers engaged.

An example of proper heading structure is this page.  It contains an H1 in the page title, an H2 introducing "Why is header structure important?" followed by several H3 sections breaking that topic down into further individual points.  Coming back out into two addition H2 structures referencing an "Example" of the concept and finalizing in a "Conclusion" statement.

You could easily take this webpage and it's contents and map each section to an English outline if needed.  You see how the page is neatly organized, visually presented and clearly deliniated in it's concepts.  This is proper structure for headings.

In conclusion, using proper HTML header structure is essential for creating a user-friendly, accessible, and search engine optimized website. By providing a clear hierarchy of content, enhancing the user experience, improving search engine optimization, providing semantic meaning, and helping with content organization, header tags are an essential tool for any web designer or developer. So, if you want to create a successful website, make sure you pay attention to your HTML header structure.