Heading Rank Is Not about the Level of Importance of Your Content

Heading rank means a hierarchy of headings that starts from heading one element as the most important to heading six as the least important heading. That is what I found on the internet. It is wrong and stupid.

You use the <h1> markup to wrap the title of your page. You do not use it to say that your title is the most important content. You do not use the <h2> element to say, "Hey, this text is less important than the title." You never think of it like that, right?

Heading elements organize content on a page. They do not imply the level of importance. Headings help users navigate around the content on the page. They are not telling the users that content beneath the <h3> is more important than the one under the <h4> element. Why do developers explain heading elements as if they have a caste system?

All your content is important. Headings without paragraph elements are useless. All content is important. They complement each other. They work together. They are not competing. If you have a mindset that using <h3> tells users "this content is not that important compared to content below the <h2>." Don't you think you should avoid using the <h3> elements? Also, you never think like that, right? Thus, thinking that the <h1> element is the most important while others are less important is stupid.

Headings are used to structure the content of your page. For example, you have written a long article. To make it easier for your users to scan and navigate your long article, you use headings to label each section. Thus, headings guide your users through your article. They do not tell your users about how important the content is.

Thinking that the HTML heading one element is the highest level of heading is correct because you need to start from the highest level to the lowest level. The HTML heading one element labels the entire page. The heading two elements label sections. The heading three elements label subsections. This is correct. This way of thinking makes you use headings correctly—start from one to six. You use headings in chronological order.

If a developer argues that this article does not matter, this developer is stupid and lazy. This developer is stupid because this person does not know that the wrong mindset leads to wrong decisions and wrong actions. This developer is lazy because this person does not use their brain. The brain is only there to write bad HTML markup.

In conclusion, do not think that heading ranks tell the importance of content. If you think that way, you should avoid using lower-level headings. Do not insult yourself by labeling any part of your publication as "less important"—as if your work is fine without the content. Only decorative stuff can be labeled as "less important." Instead, think of the heading ranks as the following: headings are used to organize my content.