Accessibility fix guide
Broken Heading Hierarchy
Screen reader users navigate by headings. Skipping levels makes content harder to understand.
Issue ID: A11Y-HEADING-001
Severity: medium
Impact: Med
Effort: S
Use this article when
- You need deeper remediation guidance than the issue card can show.
- You want CMS-specific steps before handing the fix to a developer.
- You want a repeatable re-check path after shipping the change.
What this issue is
Screen reader users navigate by headings. Skipping levels makes content harder to understand.
Why it matters
Screen reader users navigate by headings. Skipping levels makes content harder to understand. This affects usability, compliance risk, and how many visitors can successfully consume the page.
How we detect it
- FreeSiteAudit flags this issue when the rule for A11Y-HEADING-001 fails and the page evidence points to Dom body.
- You can usually confirm this by checking the page source or the relevant page settings inside your CMS.
Evidence examples
Check the affected page source, rendered output, or relevant CMS setting to confirm the missing or incorrect element.
How to fix it
- 1Fix heading order so levels are never skipped
- 2H1 → H2 → H3 (not H1 → H3)
- 3Use CSS for visual styling instead of heading tags
How to re-check it
- Use a heading outline checker to confirm sequential levels
Related tools
This issue is best verified with the full FreeSiteAudit crawl rather than a single-point mini tool.