STUDENT AFFAIRS
IT OPERATIONS GROUP

Section Headings

Section headings are used to organize content on a page, so text is easy to read and manage. Too many headlines — or too few — can make a page confusing to readers. Additionally, search engines use section headings like an outline, to distinguish main content from sub-sections on a page.

The following four headline tags can be used, in order of frequency of use:

• H6 should be the most common headline used in your documents. If your page contains only one level of sections, this is the headline you should use. If it includes multiple levels, this would be the least-significant headline.
• H5 is the second most common headline you will probably use in your pages. It should not be used on a page that has only one level of headlines, though. If your page has two levels, this is the more-significant headline.
• H4 is the most significant headline that should be used on a page. It is normally reserved for a page that has three levels of headlines. Because the color of this headline matches your theme color, it may also be appropriate to use a single H4 on your page to separate two major content sections.
• H3 is the most significant headline that can be used on a page. An H3 headline is used for the headline that is automatically generated at the top of each page. If you use this headline, your section header must be just as important as the page. If you think you need to use this headline, you probably need to separate your page into multiple pages.

You should avoid putting one headline immediately after another headline. Since the template generates a headline at the top of most pages, you shouldn't put a headline at the top of your content. Instead, be sure that the page title reflects the title you would like displayed.

If you find a need to put two headlines right after another, an introductory separator sentence or two may be appropriate to introduce your new major section before starting the minor section.