Headings on web pages
Good headings give visitors an overview of a page but are also important so that everyone can find and understand the content of a page. Headings need not be long but should be clear and descriptive.
Write descriptive headings
On the web, headings are important for more reasons than to entice people to read on. As well as being captured by search engines, headings also make the page more accessible to everyone. Therefore, use words that you know readers are searching for and that the text is about. Formulate the title around key words in the text and write the most important words first, so that the reader understands what to do on the page. For example, writing "welcome" gives the reader no indication of what the page contains.
The web page becomes more functional through consistent and descriptive headlines. For people navigating with the keyboard or using screen readers, it provides an opportunity to jump to different parts of the content. People who have reading difficulties and reduced short-term memory are given the opportunity to envisage what each part of the site contains.
The law requires: Write descriptive headings and tags (Webbriktlinjer, in Swedish)
The page's search results and ranking are better with descriptive headings because search engines rate heading content higher than paragraph content. For example, "Contact" is not enough because it does not work outside its context, since we have many contact pages on our site.
Subheadings
Subheadings are one of the best ways of highlighting information. Insert subheadings where they fulfil a function and can capture the reader. If you have a long text where you do not find anything that deserves to be highlighted with a subheading, it is better to shorten the text.
Heading levels
It is important to be thorough and consistent because support tools such as screen readers and speech synthesisers navigate the heading sizes to create an overview and the correct reading order.
Digital accessibility - requirements and opportunities
Polopoly has built-in functionality for subheadings. You should always use Heading 2 as the first heading level for subheadings. Heading 3 should only be used if you have multiple heading levels, never as a substitute for Heading 2.
