Heading Structure Analyzer

Headings are how a page explains its own structure. Readers scan them, screen readers navigate by them, search engines use them to understand what a section covers, and assistants lift individual sections out of a page when they answer a question. A page with one vague H1 and nothing else is hard for all four.

The Sorank Heading Structure Analyzer pulls the complete outline of any page and shows where the hierarchy breaks.

What a healthy outline looks like

One H1 that states the subject of the page. Not the site name, not a slogan: the thing this page is about.
H2 sections that each cover one idea, phrased the way someone would ask about it.
H3 levels used only to break down an H2, never to jump a level for styling reasons.
No empty headings, and no headings used purely to make text bigger.

The problems this finds

Missing H1: common on template driven pages where the title lives in a styled div instead of a heading tag.
Several H1 tags: valid HTML, but it dilutes the signal and usually means the template is fighting the content.
Skipped levels: an H2 followed directly by an H4 leaves a hole in the outline that screen readers announce as a missing section.
Headings that say nothing: "Introduction", "More", "Our approach". They occupy the structure without describing anything.
Headings stuffed with keywords: a signal of low quality for readers and engines alike.

Why the outline matters for AI answers

Generative assistants do not quote whole pages. They lift passages. A clear heading followed by a self contained answer is exactly the shape of content they can lift with confidence, because the heading tells them what the passage is about and the passage stands on its own. Long unbroken prose forces them to guess where an idea starts and ends, and guessing usually means choosing another source.

The practical version of this: write H2s as the question a reader would type, then answer that question in the first two sentences under it. The rest of the section can add nuance.

How to use the analysis

Run it on a page that ranks below where you expect and compare its outline with the pages above it. Missing sections show up immediately.
Run it on your own template once, to catch structural issues that repeat across hundreds of pages.
Run it before publishing long content, as a last check that the outline reads like a table of contents.

Frequently asked questions

Should a page have only one H1?

HTML5 allows several, but one is still the better practice. A single H1 states what the page is about without ambiguity, and most templates that produce multiple H1 tags do so by accident rather than by design. Use H2 for the sections underneath.

Does skipping a heading level hurt SEO?

It is not a direct ranking factor, but it breaks the document outline that screen readers rely on, and it makes the page harder to segment for engines and assistants. Going from H2 straight to H4 is usually a styling decision that should be handled in CSS instead.

How long should a heading be?

Long enough to describe the section and short enough to scan, which in practice means roughly five to ten words. Write it as the question the section answers, and avoid repeating the same keyword in every heading on the page.