Your Reader Is Lazy: Use Clear, Consistent Headings

Your reader is busy, skimming, distracted, or all three. Clear, consistent headings help them understand your document at a glance. Good headings guide your reader through your content without making them work for it. They work like a roadmap, showing your reader the outline for your document.

In this post, I’ll show you what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to heading hierarchy—and how to keep things clean, readable, and skimmable.

What Is Heading Hierarchy?

Heading hierarchy means organizing your headings so that major sections and minor subsections are visually distinct—and consistent across your document.

Your goal: Help the reader instantly understand what’s a main section and what’s a sub-point under that section.

Examples

All headings are bolded the same way in this example. This strategy makes it impossible for a reader to tell what’s important and how the sections relate. Everything looks the same—even when it’s not.

Now your reader can quickly scan the structure and follow the flow without confusion. You’ve done the thinking for them.

TIP: Use the styles built into your word processor to simplify the visual hierarchy. They are designed to follow this rule. In most HTML code, you can use the built-in element tags (h1, h2, h3, and so forth). If you have changed the styles using CSS or inline tags, the rule may have been broken.

Make Your Headings Work

• Use consistent formatting for each heading level throughout your document should.
• Don’t get fancy—use size, boldness, and spacing to create visual differences.
• Write informative headings that tell readers what’s in the section (not just “Background” or “Stuff”). See Information Rich Signposts Help Readers and Use Strong Phrasing in Your Headings for more details.