content
How to fix: H1 is substantive (not decorative)
Part of the Content Quality pillar on the Site Integrity Index.
Why this matters
A one-word decorative H1 (brand name, tagline fragment) tells search engines and readers nothing about what the page offers. Substantive H1s explain the value proposition in the first thing a viewer sees.
Background
What it checks: your H1 is a real description of the page's content — not a slogan, brand name alone, or generic phrase like "Welcome." Why it matters: the H1 is the first content signal both search crawlers and AI extractors read. A decorative H1 gives them nothing to anchor a summary or citation to.
References
Editorial content-quality signal — no formal RFC or WCAG citation exists. Best-practice heuristic weighted by search and AI extraction systems when scoring topical relevance.
How to fix
Rewrite the H1 to state what the page is about in plain language — e.g. "GDPR Cookie Consent Requirements for Irish Websites" rather than "Get Compliant Today." Keep it one sentence, no punctuation tricks. If the first thing a reader sees doesn't tell them what the page is about, no amount of body copy will recover that.
Verify it's working
Read the H1 out loud. If it doesn't answer "what is this page about?" in one sentence, rewrite it.
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