How many websites pass the H1 check?

Based on 596 audited sites · Updated 2026-07-16

53.7%of audited sites pass this check↓4% vs last month

95% confidence interval: 49.7%–57.7%

About This Check

Having exactly one H1 heading provides a clear content hierarchy signal for crawlers and LLMs.

Why This Matters

LLM Discoverability

A single, descriptive H1 heading is one of the strongest in-page signals LLMs use to label the topic of a page; multiple or missing H1s create ambiguity that degrades the accuracy of AI-generated summaries.

SEO Impact

The H1 heading is the highest-weight on-page content signal after the title tag; it informs Google's understanding of the page topic and should align closely with the target keyword.

What To Do Next

46.3% of audited sites need attention on h1 (276 of 596 sites are warning or failing).

Prioritize h1 on templates that create many URLs, because one template fix can improve a large share of html extractability & main content clarity.
After changing the page, re-run the audit and compare the observed value for this check instead of relying on visual inspection alone.
Use the 53.7% pass rate as a benchmark: if your site fails here, passing the check moves it closer to the visible majority of crawlable, AI-readable pages.

Status Breakdown

53.7%pass(320)

27.3%warn(163)

19%fail(113)

Compliance Trend

Daily pass, warning, and failure rates across benchmark snapshots (up to 90 days).

Industry Breakdown

How different industries perform on this check.

71.8% of audited Finance & Banking sites pass this check (n=39), compared with 35.7% of Media & Entertainment sites (n=84).

credible samples first · then pass rateshown-industry average 52.8%

Industry pass rates, average audit scores, and sample sizes. A marker in each pass-rate bar shows the weighted average across the displayed industries.
Industry	Pass rate	Avg score	Sites
Finance & Banking	71.8%	72.8	39
Travel & Hospitality	60.8%	74.8	51
Technology	54.3%	72	278
Education	53.3%	71.8	30
E-Commerce	36.7%	69.6	30
Media & Entertainment	35.7%	73.8	84
Other	71.4%	67	7limited
Healthcare	66.7%	76.7	9limited
Retail	66.7%	78.3	3limited
Recruitment & HR	66.7%	80	3limited

Related Checks

Run a free audit to see whether your site passes this check, or browse the leaderboard and the audited-sites directory.