---
title: "Heading Hierarchy Errors: 44.8% of Pages Skip a Level"
url: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/heading-hierarchy-errors
description: "44.8% of 1,119,394 top-1M pages with two or more headings skip a level, and 33.0% of all pages have no H1. Squarespace 52.5%, Shopify 50.3%, WordPress 49.7%."
lang: en
---
Data Study ยท On-Page SEO
# Heading Hierarchy Errors: 44.8% of Top 1M Pages Skip a Level
Of 1,119,394 top-1M pages with two or more headings, 44.8% jump a heading level, for example from H2 straight to H4.
- 1,401,418 pages
- HTTP Archive, Sept 2026
Matt Suffoletto: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/author/matt-suffoletto
Founder, PageSpeed Matters Published Oct. 19, 2026 7 min read
## Key Findings
1. **44.8%** of 1,119,394 home and inner pages on top-1M sites with two or more headings (501,036) skip a heading level. Copy stat
2. Across all 1,401,418 pages, **51.4%** don't start with an H1, **33.0%** have no H1 at all and 13.7% have several. Copy stat
3. Homepages are more likely than inner pages to have no H1 (**38.6%** of 782,850 against 25.8% of 618,568), yet inner pages skip levels more often (**47.1%** of 512,432 against 42.8% of 606,962 homepages with two or more headings). Copy stat
4. Popular sites keep cleaner outlines: **32.7%** of 1,150 Top 1K pages with two or more headings skip a level, against 41.0% of 96,348 pages ranked 10,001 to 100,000 and **45.2%** of pages ranked below 100,000. Copy stat
5. Webflow and Shopify pages rarely leave out the H1 but often repeat it: 12.2% of 4,842 Webflow pages and 16.7% of 93,507 Shopify pages have no H1, but 25.1% and 20.7% have several, and **40.7%** of 998 Squarespace pages have several. Copy stat
6. Skipped levels are most common on Squarespace (**52.5%** of 897 pages), Shopify (50.3% of 90,009) and WordPress (49.7% of 212,801), against 42.9% on other or custom stacks. Copy stat
7. Pages on other or custom stacks are the most likely to have no H1 at all: **36.5%** of 1,078,571, against 23.2% of 221,782 WordPress pages. Copy stat
Pages that skip a heading level, by site popularity
Top 1K 32.7%
1K to 10K 36.5%
10K to 100K 41%
Below 100K 45.2%
Source: PageSpeed Matters. HTTP Archive crawl, Sept 2026, mobile, pages with two or more headings.
Sites ranked by Chrome traffic; each band excludes the more popular bands before it.
In this study
## Heading structure problems by platform, top 1M pages
| Platform | Skip a level (pages with 2+ headings) | No H1 (all pages) | Several H1s (all pages) | Pages |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Squarespace | 52.5% | 25.2% | 40.7% | 998 |
| Shopify | 50.3% | 16.7% | 20.7% | 93,507 |
| WordPress | 49.7% | 23.2% | 15.5% | 221,782 |
| Wix | 48.6% | 30.9% | 27.7% | 1,718 |
| Webflow | 41.5% | 12.2% | 25.1% | 4,842 |
| Other or custom | 42.9% | 36.5% | 12.6% | 1,078,571 |
| All pages | 44.8% | 33.0% | 13.7% | 1,401,418 |
Source: PageSpeed Matters, HTTP Archive Sept 2026. Navigation and footer headings are included.
## Summary
Headings give a page its outline: one H1 for the topic, H2s for the main sections, H3s inside those. Screen readers use that outline to move around a page, and search engines use headings to understand how content is organised. Accessibility checkers and most SEO audits flag pages that skip levels.
We checked how often real pages follow the outline. Of 1,119,394 pages on the top 1M sites with two or more headings, 44.8% jump a heading level, for example from H2 straight to H4. A third of all pages have no H1 at all, and the platform a site runs on goes with clear differences in both habits.
## What we measured
We used the HTTP Archive crawl from September 2026, on mobile, covering the top 1M sites by Chrome traffic. The crawl includes both homepages and inner pages, 1,401,418 pages in all. For each page we read the order of its headings.
A page skips a level when a heading is more than one level deeper than the one before it, such as an H2 followed directly by an H4. The skip rate uses only the 1,119,394 pages with two or more headings. The H1 figures use all 1,401,418 pages, and pages with no headings count as not starting with an H1.
Headings in navigation and footers are included. A skipped level can come from a site template rather than from the page content itself.
## Close to half of pages skip a heading level
44.8% of the 1,119,394 pages with two or more headings skip a heading level, 501,036 pages in all. That makes a broken outline nearly as common as a clean one on the most visited sites on the web.
Because navigation and footers count, many of these skips likely come from templates: a footer that uses H4s for its column titles, or a sidebar widget with an H5, placed after a content section that only goes down to H2. A single template choice like that repeats on every page of a site.
44.8%
Share of 1,119,394 top-1M pages with two or more headings that skip a heading level.
## A third of pages have no H1
Across all 1,401,418 pages, 51.4% don't start with an H1, 33.0% have no H1 at all and 13.7% have several. Pages with no headings at all count in the first two groups.
Homepages are more likely than inner pages to have no H1: 38.6% of 782,850 homepages against 25.8% of 618,568 inner pages. Homepages likely open more often with a logo, a slider or a hero image instead of a heading. Yet inner pages skip levels more often, at 47.1% of 512,432 inner pages with two or more headings against 42.8% of 606,962 homepages. Inner pages likely carry longer content with more headings, which gives more chances to skip one.
## More popular sites keep cleaner outlines
The most visited sites skip heading levels least. 32.7% of 1,150 pages from Top 1K sites with two or more headings skip a level. That rises to 36.5% for the rest of the Top 10K, 41.0% of 96,348 pages on sites ranked 10,001 to 100,000, and 45.2% of pages on sites ranked below 100,000.
Larger sites are more likely to have design systems, accessibility reviews and dedicated front-end teams, which likely explains part of the gap. The pattern is a link between popularity and cleaner markup, not proof that fixing headings brings more traffic.
## Platforms differ on H1s and skipped levels
Webflow and Shopify pages rarely leave out the H1 but often repeat it. 12.2% of 4,842 Webflow pages and 16.7% of 93,507 Shopify pages have no H1, but 25.1% and 20.7% have several. On Squarespace, 40.7% of 998 pages have several H1s, the highest rate in the study. Themes and templates on these platforms likely mark up more than one block as an H1.
Skipped levels are most common on Squarespace (52.5% of 897 pages with two or more headings), Shopify (50.3% of 90,009) and WordPress (49.7% of 212,801), against 42.9% on other or custom stacks. Theme-based platforms reuse the same heading choices across many sites, so one theme's outline shows up everywhere it is installed.
Pages on other or custom stacks are the most likely to have no H1 at all: 36.5% of 1,078,571, against 23.2% of 221,782 WordPress pages. Custom builds and apps likely render many headings as styled text with no heading tag.
## What this means for your site
Start with the H1. Every page should have exactly one, describing what the page is about, and it should come before the other headings. Check your homepage first, since that is where it is most often missing, and check whether your theme marks the logo or several hero blocks as an H1.
Then fix the outline. Use H2s for main sections and H3s inside them, and choose heading levels for structure, not for size: if you want smaller text, change the CSS, not the tag. Look at your header, sidebar and footer templates too, because a skipped level there repeats on every page. A browser accessibility checker or an SEO crawler will list pages that skip levels or have no H1.
## Sources
- HTTP Archive crawl, September 2026, mobile, top 1M sites by Chrome traffic, home and inner pages
- MDN Web Docs, the HTML section heading elements: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/Heading_Elements
## Embed this research
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Source: Heading Hierarchy Errors: 44.8% of Top 1M Pages Skip a Level - PageSpeed Matters
## Frequently asked questions
### How common are heading hierarchy errors?
Very common. 44.8% of 1,119,394 pages on the top 1M sites with two or more headings skip a heading level, such as going from H2 straight to H4.
### What percentage of web pages have no H1?
33.0% of 1,401,418 home and inner pages on the top 1M sites have no H1 at all, and 13.7% have several. Homepages are missing one more often than inner pages, at 38.6% against 25.8%.
### Which platforms have the most heading errors?
Skipped levels are most common on Squarespace (52.5%), Shopify (50.3%) and WordPress (49.7%), against 42.9% on other or custom stacks. Custom stacks are the most likely to have no H1, at 36.5% of pages.
### How do I check my heading structure?
Run a browser accessibility checker or an SEO crawler on your pages, which list skipped levels and missing H1s. Check your templates too, since this study counts navigation and footer headings, and a skipped level there repeats on every page.
Most heading problems live in a few templates, so fixing them once cleans up the outline on every page that uses them. Need help with this? See our on-page SEO services (https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/services/on-page-seo).
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How we measured
## Methodology & Source
Data source
HTTP Archive crawl, top 1M sites by Chrome traffic, home and inner pages, mobile
Collection date
September 2026
Sample
1,401,418 pages
Release
HTTP Archive, Sept 2026
Heading order read on each page. The skip rate uses the 1,119,394 pages with two or more headings; the H1 figures use all 1,401,418 pages, and pages with no headings count as not starting with an H1. Headings in navigation and footers are included, so a skipped level may come from a template rather than the content.
Using this data?
## Cite this study
Link back to the study when you cite it.
APA
Matt Suffoletto. (2026). Heading Hierarchy Errors: 44.8% of Top 1M Pages Skip a Level. PageSpeed Matters. https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/heading-hierarchy-errors
Plain link
Heading Hierarchy Errors: 44.8% of Top 1M Pages Skip a Level - PageSpeed Matters - https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/heading-hierarchy-errors
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- On-Page SEO H2 Usage on #1 Results: 19.8% Have None: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/h2-usage-statistics
- On-Page SEO H2s Written as Questions: 43.1% of Top 5 Results: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/h2s-written-as-questions
- On-Page SEO Table of Contents Usage: 46.3% of Long Top Guides: https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/table-of-contents-usage
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