---
title: seo/heading-level-skip · Heading order
description: Heading levels should not be skipped.
---

**Severity:** info

## What it checks

Flags a heading whose level jumps more than one step over the previous heading (for example `<h2>` directly followed by `<h4>`). Presence of a single `<h1>` is covered by `seo/single-h1`.

## Why it matters

Skipping a heading level breaks the document outline that assistive technology relies on to navigate page structure, and that search engines use as a structural signal.

## How to fix

```svelte
<h1>Page title</h1><h2>Section</h2><h3>Subsection</h3>
```

## Mode differences

Headings are collected in both modes, but from different sources, so results can differ:

- **Source analysis** (the CLI, the dashboard's static baseline) walks the route's `.svelte` templates, so it counts headings in branches that may not render (e.g. inside `{#if false}`) and cannot see headings rendered by imported child components.
- **Rendered analysis** (the Vite plugin's build pass, a route you visit in the dashboard) reads the rendered HTML, so it sees component-rendered headings and only the branches that actually rendered.

When the two disagree, trust the rendered result. It reflects what ships to the browser.

## Disabling

Record existing findings in the suppressions file (`npx svelte-vitals --update-suppressions`), scope the rule per route or path with `overrides`, or turn it off:

```js svelte-vitals.config.js
export default {
  rules: {
    'seo/heading-level-skip': 'off'
  }
};
```