On-page and content
How to fix H1 heading problems
The H1 is the visible heading that tells a reader — and a search engine — what a page is about before either goes any further. Three faults are common, and a template is behind most of them, which means one fix usually clears the whole site.
Pages with no H1
These pages have no H1. It is the heading that tells both readers and search engines what the page is about before anything else is read.
What it is, and what it costs
<h1> is the main on-page heading. Missing it removes a clear topic signal and makes the page harder to scan; screen-reader users lose the landmark they use to know where they are. It often happens when a design uses styled text instead of a real heading tag.How to fix it
Add one <h1> per page describing its subject in plain words, usually the visible page title, marked up as a real heading rather than a styled <div>.
- WordPress / Shopify / Webflow: make sure the template's main heading is an actual H1, not a paragraph styled to look like one.
How to check your site
View source or use a browser extension that shows the heading outline. Crawl the site to find pages with zero H1s.
Related: multiple H1s and duplicate H1s.
Questions people ask
- Does the H1 have to match the title tag?
- They can differ. The title targets search; the H1 speaks to the reader on the page. Both should describe the same subject.
More than one H1 on a page
These pages have several H1 headings. It is not fatal, but it dilutes the signal: several equally important headings means none of them is clearly the subject.
What it is, and what it costs
How to fix it
Keep one H1 as the page's subject and demote the rest to H2. Check the header, the main content, and any hero or banner component for stray H1s.
How to check your site
Use a heading-outline extension or crawl the site to count H1s per page.
Related: missing H1s and heading order.
Questions people ask
- HTML5 allows multiple H1s: is it an issue?
- Allowed, but one clear H1 gives the cleanest signal and outline. Treat it as best practice, not a hard rule.
Pages sharing one H1
Different pages carry the same H1, which makes them look like the same page to anyone skimming and to search engines grouping your content.
What it is, and what it costs
How to fix it
Give each page an H1 that names what is on that page specifically (the article title, the product name, the category) rather than a site-wide label.
How to check your site
Crawl the site and group by H1; anything shared across different pages is a duplicate.
Related: missing and multiple H1s.
Questions people ask
- Is a duplicate H1 as bad as a duplicate title?
- Less so (the title is the stronger signal), but both make pages look the same, which is worth avoiding.
Does your site have this?
Check your site to find pages missing an H1.
See also
- How to fix title tag problemsThe title tag is the line people read in search results, and the strongest single signal on the page about what it is for. Four things go wrong with it, and a site with one of them usually has two. Each is below, with what it costs and how to put it right.
- How to fix meta description problemsThe meta description is the sentence under your link in search results. It is not a ranking factor, which is exactly why it gets neglected — and it is what decides whether anybody clicks the result you worked to earn. Three faults account for almost all of it.
- How to fix a broken heading structureThe headings on these pages skip levels, for example an H4 directly under an H2. Screen readers use the heading outline to navigate, and search engines use it to understand how a page is organised.
- How to add alt text to your imagesImages on these pages have no alt attribute. Alt text is what screen-reader users hear instead of the image, what appears when it fails to load, and what puts your images in image search.