Heading Structure Checker - Extract H1-H6 Free

This heading structure checker pulls every H1 to H6 tag out of the HTML you paste and shows them as an indented outline. It is built for SEOs, writers and developers who want to audit a page's content hierarchy. You get a count for each level and warnings for a missing H1, repeated H1s and skipped levels.

What Is Heading Structure?

Heading structure is the outline created by a page's heading tags, from H1 (the main title) down to H6 (the smallest sub-point). Each tag marks a section, and its level shows how that section relates to the ones around it. A H2 sits under the H1, a H3 sits under a H2, and so on.

Think of it as a table of contents built into the HTML. Search engines read it to understand what a page covers and how its topics fit together. Screen reader users depend on it even more: many navigate by jumping from heading to heading, so a broken outline makes the page hard to use.

Heading Level Basics

• H1: the page's main topic. Most SEO guidance recommends one per page.
• H2: the major sections that support the H1.
• H3 to H6: progressively smaller sub-sections inside the section above them.

Headings are not the same as visual styling. A line of bold, large text is not a heading unless it uses a heading tag, and a heading tag can be styled to look small. The outline depends on the tags, not on how they look.

How to Use the Heading Structure Extractor

You paste your page's HTML into the box and click one button. The whole check takes a few seconds and needs no live URL.

1. Open the page you want to audit in your browser and view its source code (right-click and choose View Page Source, or press Ctrl+U on Windows or Option+Command+U on Mac).
2. Select everything and copy it. A full copy of the page works best, but you can also paste a smaller section of HTML.
3. Paste it into the Paste HTML Source Code field.
4. Click Extract Headings. If the box is empty, the tool asks you to paste some HTML code first.
5. Read the level badges at the top, then any warnings, then the indented outline of every heading in the order it appears.
6. Fix the issues in your template or editor, paste the updated HTML and run it again to confirm.

Worked Example: Reading a Real Result

Say you paste the source of a running shoe guide with these headings in this order: H1 "Running Shoe Guide", H2 "Choosing Your Shoes", H4 "Cushioning Types", H2 "Care and Cleaning", and a promotional banner at the bottom that uses an H1 "Shop the Sale".

The tool shows the badges H1: 2, H2: 2 and H4: 1. It then lists two warnings:

• Heading level skipped from H2 to H4 (near: "Cushioning Types").
• Multiple H1 tags found (2). Use only one H1 per page.

Below that, the outline appears with each heading indented by its level, so the H4 visibly floats two steps under its parent. The fix is simple. Change "Cushioning Types" to an H3 so it sits directly under "Choosing Your Shoes", and change the banner's H1 to a paragraph or a lower heading. Run the check again and you should see H1: 1, H2: 2, H3: 1 and the message "Heading structure looks good!"

How Do You Read the Results?

The results have three parts: level counts, warnings and the outline. Each one answers a different question about your page.

Level Count Badges

The badges show how many headings of each level the page contains. Only levels that appear are listed. A healthy article usually has one H1, several H2s and some H3s. If you see ten H2s and no H3s on a long page, that is not an error, but you may be missing a chance to group related points.

Warnings

The tool raises three kinds of warnings, and each has a clear fix:

• No H1 tag found: add one H1 that names the page's main topic, usually close to your title tag.
• Multiple H1 tags found: keep the one that describes the page and demote the others to H2 or lower, or turn decorative ones into normal text.
• Heading level skipped: the message names the levels and shows the first 50 characters of the heading near the jump. Change the lower heading to the next level, or add the missing parent section.

When there are no warnings, the tool reports that the heading structure looks good. That means the basic rules passed. It does not judge whether your wording is useful.

The Outline

Each heading is color coded and indented by level, with its text next to it. Read the outline top to bottom as if it were a table of contents. If you cannot tell what the page is about from the headings alone, a visitor skimming the page cannot either. Look for headings that are vague ("More Info"), duplicated, or stuffed with the same phrase.

When Is This Tool the Right Choice?

Use it whenever you need to see a page's skeleton without reading the full page. Common situations include:

• Content audits: check a batch of blog posts for missing or repeated H1s before a refresh.
• Template reviews: developers can confirm that a theme outputs one H1 and does not turn sidebar widgets or footer titles into headings that confuse the outline.
• Accessibility checks: the WCAG guidelines expect headings to describe structure and topic, and a logical level order helps screen reader users move through the page.
• Competitor research: paste the source of a page that ranks well and study how it organizes sections and sub-topics.
• Pre-publish checks: paste your draft's HTML from a CMS preview to catch mistakes before the page goes live.
• Outline planning: extract the headings from an old article and use the list as the starting point for a rewrite.

If you only want a quick list for a live page, the HTML headings checker is a good companion. For other tags that live in the head of your page, the On-Page SEO and Meta Tags tools cover the rest of the basics.

Best Practices for Clean Headings

Good heading structure follows a few habits that are easy to apply and easy to verify with this tool.

• Write one H1 that matches the page's purpose. It should be specific and readable, not a keyword list. Keep it closely aligned with your title tag, and preview how that title looks with the Google SERP snippet preview.
• Go down one level at a time. After an H2, the next deeper heading should be an H3. You can jump back up from H4 to H2 whenever a new major section starts.
• Make each heading describe its section. A reader who scans only the headings should still get the gist.
• Use question headings where people ask questions. A heading like "What Is Heading Structure?" followed by a direct answer fits how people search and how AI answer engines pick passages. If you do answer questions on the page, the FAQ schema generator can mark them up.
• Do not use headings for styling. If you want large bold text, use CSS on a paragraph instead.
• Keep headings reasonably short. Many writers aim for under about 70 characters so they read cleanly on mobile screens.

Common Mistakes and Troubleshooting

The Tool Says No Headings Were Found

This usually means the HTML you pasted does not contain heading tags. A common cause is copying the visible text of the page instead of its source code. Another is pages that build their content with JavaScript after loading, because the raw source may hold only an empty container. In that case, copy the rendered HTML from your browser's inspector (the Elements panel) rather than from View Source.

There Are More Headings Than You Expected

The tool lists every H1 to H6 tag in the pasted HTML, including those in menus, sidebars, cookie notices, related-post widgets and footers. If the count looks too high, scan the outline for headings that belong to the page template rather than the article. Those are often the source of an unexpected second H1 or a skipped level.

A Heading Looks Empty

If a heading tag wraps only an image, an icon or whitespace, the outline shows a blank line for it. Empty headings give screen readers and search engines nothing to work with. Add real text or remove the tag.

The Order Looks Wrong

The outline follows the order of the HTML source, not the order of the visual layout. If CSS moves a section on screen, the source order still decides how assistive technology reads the page. Fix the order in the HTML.

Limitations to Keep in Mind

The tool checks structure, not quality. It flags a missing H1, more than one H1 and downward level jumps such as H2 to H4. It does not flag a page that starts with an H2 before any H1 except through the missing-H1 warning, and it does not warn when you jump back up the levels, which is normal in long articles.

Having more than one H1 is not an automatic penalty in every case, since HTML itself allows it. Still, a single H1 is the clearest convention for most pages, and the warning is there so you can make a deliberate choice. Heading text also does not guarantee rankings. It helps search engines and visitors understand your content, but it works alongside strong content, titles and links.

For a broader view of how much of your page is readable content versus markup, try the code to text ratio checker. If your pages show navigation paths, the breadcrumb schema generator can describe that trail to search engines.

Check Your Outline Now

A clear heading hierarchy makes your page easier to scan, easier to navigate with assistive tools and easier for search engines to interpret. Paste your HTML into the box above, click Extract Headings and fix any warning it shows. Then run the check again until the outline reads like a clean table of contents.