Headings and sub-headings help users to scan your content. They are also important for people using assistive technologies to navigate a page.  

Titles of releases should use the heading level 1 (H1) format and sub-headings under that move logically down the heading levels. Do not skip a level – for example, do not go from H2 to H4. Screen reader users may navigate content through heading levels so a missed level can be confusing.  

Make sure headings are short, frontloaded and use the active voice. 

Do not use questions in headings. They are not frontloaded, can take longer for the user to scan and are harder to understand. 

Use: 

“International migration definition” 

Rather than: 

“What is the standard definition of international migration?”

Use a statistical heading, describing the content of the following text, rather than a headline that describes the story. This is shorter and easier for the user to understand when scanning through the table of contents. 

Use:

Consumer Prices Index

Rather than

CPI rose by 5.5% in the 12 months to January 2022

See our Structuring content guidance for more information on how to write content.