Headings and formatting
This page describes how to use headings and formatting appropriately on your web pages. Headings and careful use of formatting makes pages easier to read, improve search results and are good for accessibility.
Heading styles
Keep headings concise and use the ‘heading 2’ style for each topic on a page.
More on heading styles
If you have different sections within a topic, these can be given a ‘heading 3’ style like this heading. Think of ‘heading 2’ has chapter titles, and ‘heading 3’ as sub titles within that chapter.
Formatting
Bold text
Subtle use of bold text can help people when scanning a page. Be careful – lots of bold text has the opposite effect. Remember that on web pages, less is more.
Bulleted lists
Bulleted lists help break up paragraphs. When using lists you should:
- Use consistent phrasing, e.g. start each list item with a verb like ‘do’ our ‘put’
- Avoid repeating initial words, e.g. leave out ‘the’ or ‘a’
- Keep them short – if your list items have lots of text, using headings might be better than a list
This article has some useful tips for presenting bulleted lists. If you have an important document or link that is a call to action, it can be more visually effective to put use a bullet point.
Links
Link text helps us scan pages because it stands out and it is vital for accessibility.
Your link text should concisely say exactly what the link is taking you to. Eg. Performance Assurance Report not click here to read the Elexon BSC Performance Assurance Report – you should never need to use click here!