How Should I Design Skimmable Headings and Subheadings?

Why do people skip past most of my headings?

People skip your headings because they are scanning, not reading, and most headings do not give them a reason to stop. Readers move fast, looking for the one part that answers their question. If a heading is vague or looks like body text, their eyes glide right past it without slowing down.

This is not a flaw in your readers. It is how everyone uses the web. Nielsen Norman Group found that 79% of users always scan a new page, while only 16% read it word by word. So your headings are doing most of the work of holding a reader, whether you designed them to or not.

As someone who designs pages to be read by humans and quoted by AI, I treat headings as the backbone of a page, not decoration. Good headings guide a scanner to the right spot. In this article I will show you how to design headings and subheadings that people actually use.

What makes a heading skimmable?

A skimmable heading is short, specific, and visually distinct from the text around it. It tells the reader exactly what the next section covers in a few plain words, and it stands out in size and weight so the eye lands on it while scanning. Clarity and contrast together make it skimmable.

Specific beats clever every time. A heading like "How much does it cost?" helps a scanner more than a witty phrase that hides the topic. When someone is skimming for an answer, they reward the heading that plainly names what they are looking for, so write for the searcher, not for applause.

Visual contrast does the other half. If a heading is only slightly bigger than the paragraph, the eye does not register it as a landmark. A clear jump in size and weight turns each heading into a signpost. That contrast is what lets a reader scan a long page in seconds and still find their spot.

How many heading levels should I actually use?

Use one main heading for the page and then two, sometimes three, levels below it. That is almost always enough. A page needs one H1, then H2s for its main sections, and H3s only when a section truly has sub-parts. More levels than that usually means the page is over-organized and confusing.

Heading levels are structure, not just style. The H1 is the page title, the H2s are its main questions or sections, and H3s sit under an H2 when it needs breaking down. Keeping that order clean helps both readers and machines understand how your content nests together.

Skipping levels is where people go wrong. Jumping from an H2 straight to an H4 because it "looks right" breaks the structure that screen readers and search engines rely on. Style is separate from level. You can make any heading look how you want in Webflow while keeping the underlying order correct.

How do I write headings people scan and act on?

Write headings as the questions your reader is actually asking, in their own words. A scanner is hunting for an answer, so a heading phrased as their question is a magnet for their eyes. Keep it under about ten words, front-load the important term, and say what the section delivers.

Front-loading matters because of how people scan. Nielsen Norman Group's eye-tracking work shows readers often move in an F-shaped pattern, catching the start of lines and headings far more than the ends. So the first two or three words of a heading do the heavy lifting. Put your key term there.

Plain language wins here too, which pairs with keeping the whole page easy to read. Short, concrete headings in a reader's own phrasing beat abstract ones. I go deeper on writing lines that get noticed and quoted in my post on writing sentences AI search engines quote, and the same instinct applies to headings.

How big should my headings be compared to body text?

Big enough that the jump is obvious at a glance, usually following a clear type scale. A common approach is body text around 16 to 18 pixels, section headings noticeably larger, and the page title larger still. The exact numbers matter less than keeping a consistent, visible step between each level.

A type scale is just a set of sizes that relate to each other by a fixed ratio, so each level feels a step above the last. Using one keeps your page from looking random. When headings grow by a consistent rule, a scanner can read the hierarchy instantly without thinking about it, and it pairs well with getting your body text line length right so paragraphs stay easy to read too.

Weight and spacing count as much as size. A heading with more space above it than below it visually groups with the text it introduces, which helps scanning. Bumping the font weight adds contrast without needing a huge size. These small choices are what separate a tidy page from a wall of text, a theme I cover in my guide to blog post layout for readability.

How do subheadings help readers who are scanning?

Subheadings break a long section into scannable chunks so a reader can find the exact part they need. They act as mini-signposts within a topic, letting someone skip to the piece that answers their question. Without them, a long section becomes a gray block that scanners abandon.

Think of subheadings as rest stops. A reader scanning a long article uses them to decide where to slow down and where to skip. Each subheading is a small promise about what comes next. When those promises are clear and specific, the reader trusts the page and keeps going instead of bouncing.

They also make your content feel shorter than it is, which keeps people reading. A page chopped into clear, labeled chunks reads faster than the same words in one long flow. That perceived ease is a real design benefit, and it costs you nothing but a little structure.

How do skimmable headings also help AI search?

Skimmable headings help AI search because answer engines read structure the way scanners do. A page with clear, question-shaped headings is easy for a model to parse, match to a query, and quote. The same headings that guide a human eye also tell ChatGPT or Perplexity what each section answers.

This is the part most designers miss. When your H2 is literally the question a user might type, and the text right under it answers that question, you have handed an AI engine a clean, quotable unit. Good heading design and good answer-engine optimisation are the same craft from two angles.

That is why I design headings as questions on almost every client page now. It serves the scanner and the model at once. You do not choose between human readability and AI visibility. A well-structured heading serves both, which is the whole reason I lead with structure in my work.

What heading mistakes make a page hard to scan?

The big mistakes are vague headings, headings that look like body text, too many levels, and headings written for style over clarity. Each one removes a landmark the scanner needs. When headings stop functioning as signposts, the reader has to actually read everything, and most will not bother.

Vague is the worst offender. A heading like "Moving forward" tells a scanner nothing, so their eye slides past and the section might as well be invisible. Every heading should be able to stand alone and still make sense as a summary of what follows. If it cannot, rewrite it.

Low contrast is the quiet killer. If your headings are only a touch larger or use a faint color, they blend into the page and stop guiding anyone. Keep them bold and clearly sized, and keep their color readable against the background, which also matters for accessibility and WCAG contrast.

How do I set this up cleanly in Webflow?

In Webflow, set your heading styles once on the H1 through H3 tags, using a consistent type scale, then reuse them everywhere. Style the tag itself in the Designer so every heading inherits the same size, weight, and spacing. That keeps your whole site consistent without restyling each heading by hand.

Webflow lets you style the base HTML tags directly, which is the clean way to do this. Set the H2 tag to your chosen size and spacing, and every H2 across the site follows. If one page needs a different look, use a class on top of the tag rather than breaking the underlying structure.

Keep the visual style separate from the heading level. If you want an H2-level section to look smaller in one spot, change its style with a class, not its tag. The tag carries the meaning for screen readers and search engines, and the class carries the look. Keeping those two apart is the habit that keeps a site both accessible and easy to scan.

Where should I start improving my headings?

Start with your most-visited page and read only the headings, top to bottom. If they do not tell the whole story on their own, rewrite them as clear questions or plain summaries. That one pass usually reveals half your headings are vague, and fixing them is the fastest readability win you can get.

Then check the visual side. Make sure each level is clearly bigger and bolder than the text around it, and that the spacing groups each heading with the section it introduces. Small, consistent changes across a few key pages will make your whole site feel easier to read almost immediately.

If you want a hand designing a heading system that works for both readers and AI search, let's chat. I am happy to review your pages and set up a clean, scannable hierarchy in Webflow with you. Reach out through pravinkumar.co and I will walk through it with you.