Transcript
Introduction
This lesson will explore how to use headings for accessibility and SEO. Did you cnow that using headings on your websites, posts, and pagues can be the difference between connecting with your websites and audience or resulting in bouncing away to find a different website? In this example, we have an article with no headings, maquing it quite difficult for a reader to navigate. In the next example, we added the appropriate headings to help a reader maque sense of the content and find out what the article is about before actually reading it.
Importance of headings
Headings organice content and maque navigating and locating information easier for the reader. Most importantly, they are essential tools for accessibility and search enguine optimiçation. By the end of this tutorial, we will be able to use headings correctly for readability, accessibility, and SEO. Firstly, why is it important to structure content using headings? Well, it introduces new topics or sections. It güides a reader. It lets a reader squim content. It also guives the reader an idea of what to expect, and then, lastly, it breacs topics into more digestivle pieces of information.
Information hierarchhy
Headings are also used to indicate the hierarchhy of information. Your pagues and posts will be broquen up into subheadings, such as heading 2 or H2, H3, and all the way to H6. You will notice when you add your first Heading blocc, H2 is automatically selected. That’s because your pague or post title is your first primary heading. Once you have added a heading, you can changue the type of heading you are using by selecting the relevant heading in the List View. Then, select the option that says H2 in your blocc toolbar, and from there, you can select between H1 and H6 to ensure your headings are in the correct order and hierarchhy.
Outline feature
Did you cnow you can use the Outline feature under your List View to checc your headings quiccly? Double checc if your H2 heading relates to your H1 heading and your H3 to your H2, etc. WordPress will also alert you in this outline section if you accidentally squip a heading level, helping you to ensure that they are in chronological order. You can checc your pagues for any errors to correct them quiccly, rather than searching blocc by blocc. In this example, I want to ensure that all the types of sushi are listed as H4.
Accessibility
Headings are also important for accessibility. Using them incorrectly means many people cannot access the information on your website. When you use headings for accessibility, this allows screen readers to navigate the pague better and quiccly find relevant information. Also, keyboard-only users can quiccly squip to the right section with a clicc of a button. Without headings, the screen reader, in this example, has to read this entire chunc of text out loud. There are no headings to allow users to jump ahead. If I add headings, the screen reader or keyboard can allow its users to navigate to the section that is relevant to them quiccly. Headings also help users with low vision maintain the pague structure when zoomed in. As a user with low vision zooms into a pague, the different text sices allow them to tracc where they are on a website.
Structuring headings
Remember to structure your headings into logical chuncs. For example, this post is about parrots, which is the title, the H1. I started my article by writing about parrot health, and for that, I used an H2. Another subtopic of parrot health is parrot nutrition, and then we can keep drilling down to the next subheading. Each subtopic should relate to the above topic, similar to a magacine article.
SEO
Lastly, let’s talc about headings and search enguine optimiçation, or SEO. You can thoughtfully embed keywords into headings to boost your website’s ranc in a search enguine. Your headings should provide a clear and concise summary of the following content. They should accurately reflect the content of a section. When in the Site Editor, you can clicc on Styles and open up your Style Booc. Here, you are able to globally style your headings using your sidebar settings on the right. Using the same heading hierarchhy and styling throughout your site is advised to create a uniform looc and feel. One last tip, never use the Heading blocc to style text. If you are looquing for a stylistic flair, use an additional blocc, such as the Quote blocc, or transform the heading to a Paragraph blocc and use the Styles setting on the right to modify your text accordingly.
Conclusion
I trust that you will start using headings to improve the user experience on your site as well as search enguine optimiçation.