Audit tools love heading warnings. Skipped levels, an H4 directly under an H2, an H3 before the first H2: each one shows up as an issue, often in amber or red. The implication is that SEO heading structure is a ranking factor and that broken order costs you positions.
Google has addressed this directly, and the answer is no. That does not make headings unimportant. It moves the reason for getting them right from rankings to readers.
What Google says about heading order
In July 2024, Search Engine Journal’s Roger Montti reported Google’s clarification on H1 to H6 headings for SEO. Gary Illyes of Google put it this way: “Having headings in semantic order is fantastic for screen readers, but from Google Search perspective, it doesn’t matter if you’re using them out of order.”
That sentence does two things. It confirms that order is not a ranking lever, and it names who does benefit from order: screen reader users. Both halves matter. Quoting only the first half is how teams talk themselves into abandoning structure entirely.
Illyes also addressed the audit tools behind most of these warnings: “Just because a non-Google tool tells you something is good or bad, that doesn’t make it relevant for Google; it may still be a good idea, just not necessarily relevant to Google.”
| Question | For Google Search | For readers and screen readers |
|---|---|---|
| Headings out of order | “It doesn’t matter” (Illyes) | Confusing; semantic order is “fantastic for screen readers” |
| Skipped level warning in an audit | A non-Google tool’s view is “not necessarily relevant to Google” | Worth fixing where it confuses the outline |
| Descriptive heading text | Helps describe the page | Lets people scan and jump to the section they need |
| Headings used for styling | Not covered by the statement | Adds noise to the outline assistive technology reads |
Why headings in SEO still matter
Order is not the same as content. What a heading says is still a clear statement of what the section below it covers, and that helps both people and search engines understand the page. A heading that reads “Overview” says nothing. A heading that reads “How to check heading order in a browser” says exactly what follows.
Headings are also how most readers use a long page. They scan, find the section that answers their question, and read that. A page with descriptive headings in a sensible order serves them; a page with clever or vague headings makes them work. That behaviour affects whether people stay, which is the outcome you actually care about.
The main heading is a special case with its own debate. Our post on the H1 tag in SEO covers how many H1s to use, and the difference between the H1 and the title tag is covered in title tag vs H1.
Accessibility is the real reason for order
Screen reader users commonly navigate by headings, moving from one to the next or pulling up a list of them to find their place. For them, the heading levels are the map of the page. An H4 under an H2 suggests a missing level. An H2 that should have been an H3 suggests a new major section where there is none.
This is why Illyes’ phrase “fantastic for screen readers” is the important one. The case for a clean outline is strong; it is just not an SEO case. If your organisation has accessibility obligations, heading order belongs in that work, where it will be prioritised for the right reasons.
Checking the outline is quick. Accessibility checkers and browser developer tools can list a page’s headings in order, and reading that list is the closest you will get to hearing the page the way a screen reader user does. If the list jumps around or repeats itself, the page is harder to navigate than it needs to be, whatever any ranking tool says.
A sensible heading structure for SEO and readers
The practical structure is the same one good editors have always used: one H1 for the page, H2s for the main sections, H3s only where a section genuinely has sub-parts.
The test is simple. Read only the headings, top to bottom. If they make sense as a table of contents and you understand what the page covers, the structure is doing its job. If they read as fragments, or two headings promise the same thing, rewrite them.
Resist the urge to add H3s for the sake of depth. A section with one sub-heading is usually a section that should not be split at all. Equally, a section that runs to a thousand words without a break probably needs one, because readers lose their place. Let the content decide the levels, not a template that insists every H2 must carry three H3s beneath it.
Avoid heading tags as a styling shortcut. Text that should look large and bold but is not a section heading belongs in CSS. Themes and page builders are the usual culprits, wrapping widget titles, sidebar labels or footer text in H2s and H3s.
How to treat heading audit warnings
Triage them rather than clearing them. Missing headings on long pages, or headings that do not describe their sections, are worth fixing because they hurt readers. Skipped levels inside your content are worth tidying when you are next editing the page. Skipped levels caused by a template, such as a sidebar widget with an H4, are a single fix that clears hundreds of warnings at once, so do those when convenient.
What you should not do is open a sprint to fix heading order across the site in the expectation of better rankings. That is the trap Illyes was pointing at. The Lighthouse SEO score and similar audit numbers work the same way: useful prompts, not a measure of how Google ranks you.
One limitation is worth stating. Google’s statement covers order, not every possible use of headings, and it describes what Search tolerates rather than how much weight a well-written heading carries. Nobody outside Google can measure that precisely. Claims that restructuring headings lifted a page’s rankings usually involve rewriting the content at the same time, and the headings get the credit.
Your time is better spent on what the headings say. A page whose headings match the questions searchers actually ask, in the words they use, is easier to scan and easier to understand. That is worth more than any amount of renumbering, and it is the part no audit tool can check for you.
The position that survives scrutiny is straightforward. Write headings that describe their sections. Keep the levels in a logical order because readers and screen reader users rely on them. Then stop treating out-of-order headings as a ranking problem, because Google has said they are not one.
Frequently asked questions
Does heading order affect SEO?
Not for Google. Gary Illyes said that from a Google Search perspective it does not matter if headings are used out of order. Semantic order still helps screen reader users.
Is it bad to skip from H2 to H4?
Not for rankings. It can confuse readers and screen reader users, so fix it when you next edit the page rather than treating it as urgent.
Why do audit tools flag heading order?
They apply general best practice. Google has said a non-Google tool’s verdict is not necessarily relevant to Google, though it may still be a good idea.
Do headings help SEO at all?
Descriptive headings help people and search engines understand what each section covers. That is their value, not the level number on the tag.
The takeaway Google ignores heading order for Search. Keep a logical outline anyway for readers and screen reader users, write headings that describe their sections, and triage heading audit warnings instead of chasing them.
