Content Development: Here’s What You Need to Know About Using Headings in Your Content

Few things are more intimidating to a flippant reader than a large block of text. But don’t think that’s a new development. Newspaper and magazine writers are familiar with the frustrating task of appealing to people who are rushing through their morning reading.

Headings within a page or blog post break text up for readers, clarify the ideas of the page and keep them informed as they skim. Because most of them will skim. A few will read every word, but not many.

What do we mean by headings? How the headings look will depend on the way your website was built, but here are a few examples:

Heading 1

Heading 2

Heading 3

Use headings to break up content based on subject matter. This lets a reader understand what the content she’s going to read is about, meaning she can skim faster and is more likely to look over the whole thing.

If you’re describing a detailed step-by-step process, the number of each step and a brief description could be the heading like “Step 2: Research keywords.” Make your content chunky and add headings for clarity when the topic or focus changes. Your page or blog editor should have a drop-down menu you can change from “Normal” or “Paragraph” to the appropriate heading number.

A few things to keep in mind when using headings:

• Always use headings in order. Heading 1 goes first, heading 2 after that, etc. Headings 3 and lower can be subheads under a higher heading — just stay consistent.
• Multiple heading 2s or lower are OK, but don’t have more than one heading 1. Most blog titles are automatically heading 2, so the content you write should start at heading 3 and go lower if needed.
• Keywords don’t need to be stuffed into headings all the time. A few here and there when it’s appropriate (when it doesn’t seem forced) is best.