HTML headings, <h1> through <h6>, describe the structure of a document — what its sections are and how they nest. They are not a way to make text bigger. Using them correctly helps search engines understand your page, and it is one of the clearest overlaps between SEO and accessibility.
Think of headings the way you would think of a table of contents. An <h2> is a major section. An <h3> inside it is a sub-point of that section. Skipping from <h2> straight to <h4> is the equivalent of a contents page with a missing level.
<h1>How to Choose a Laptop for Students</h1>
<h2>What Specifications Actually Matter</h2>
<h3>Processor</h3>
<h3>Memory</h3>
<h3>Storage</h3>
<h2>What You Can Safely Ignore</h2>
<h2>How Much to Spend</h2>Read the headings alone and you should still understand roughly what the page covers. If they do not make sense in isolation, the structure is wrong.
The <h1> is the page's main heading — the visible title of the content. Conventionally there is one per page, matching what the page is actually about.
It is related to but separate from the <title> tag: the title appears in search results and browser tabs, the H1 appears on the page itself. They are often similar, and they do not have to be identical. A title may include the brand name and be written to earn a click; an H1 usually reads more naturally as a headline.
<title>How to Choose a Laptop for Students | TechShop</title>
...
<h1>How to Choose a Laptop for Students</h1>The mistake is picking a heading level because of how it looks — using <h4> for a subtitle because <h2> renders too large. Size is CSS's job. Choose the level that reflects the section's place in the outline, then style it however you like.
/* Right: correct level, styled to taste */
h2 { font-size: 1.25rem; }
/* Wrong: picking h4 because it happened to look right */Accessibility and SEO agree here
Screen reader users navigate pages by jumping between headings — it is one of the primary ways of moving through a long document without reading every word. A page whose heading levels are chosen for appearance is genuinely harder to use, not just technically incorrect. This is the same structure search engines read, which is why the two concerns line up so neatly here.
<h1> per page, describing the whole page.<h2> then <h3>, not <h2> then <h4>.