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Content style guide

Structure your content

Structure your content so it's easy to follow for everyone, including sighted readers, people who are using an assistive device such as a screen reader, and people with cognitive conditions. Instead of long paragraphs, chunk content using hierarchical headings, bulleted lists, process lists (subway map), and groups of accordion links.

Here’s how to structure your content.

Headings

An example of using headings on a page.
Headings give structure to your page's content. Use an H1 for the page title, an H2 for the first sub-heading, and an H3 for sub-headings within that section.

Content and accessibility best practices

Headings help to set expectations for each page and section within a page. They help sighted readers easily scan the content. And they help people using assistive devices, such as screen readers, quickly get oriented to the page and navigate through the information.

Follow these best practices when using headings:

  • Use only 1 H1 heading per page. The H1 should clearly and briefly capture the page topic. Note: On Drupal pages, Drupal will convert the “Page title” to an H1. On non-Drupal pages, you’ll need to code the H1 manually.
  • Don’t skip heading levels. Only increase by 1 level at a time. For example, follow an H1 heading only with an H2 heading, never with an H3 or H4 heading.
  • Don’t use HTML elements or CSS styling for bold, italics, and font sizing in place of proper headings.
  • Use headings for their semantic meaning, not their styling. For example, don’t use an H4 just because of its small font size. Use utility classes to change a heading’s style
  • Don’t stack headings (1 heading level followed by another). For example, don’t place an H2 immediately after an H1 without any regular content in between the headings.
  • Arrange headings hierarchically on the page, from most important to least important.
  • Make each heading informative and distinct. Don’t repeat information from other headings.
  • Review the “Page titles and section titles” section for more content guidance

Additional resources

Further reading

Accordions

An example of using accordions.
Use accordions to condense and group content as needed. Accordions can help provide an easy-to-scan overview of related content questions or topics to help people quickly decide which content best fits their needs. Be mindful not to overuse accordions.

Bulleted lists

An example of using bulleted lists.
Use bulleted lists to make information easier to scan and understand. Break sentences into bulleted lists when they contain more than 3 items or ideas.
Last updated: Jun 17, 2025