H2 is the second-level HTML heading (<h2>), used to label the major sections that sit beneath a page’s single H1 title.
| Term | H2 |
|---|---|
| Category | Page Structure and Technical SEO |
| Also known as | Heading Level 2 |
| Where it appears | Content Report → Headings |
What it means in RankGear
In the Content Report’s Headings view, RankGear reads the rendered DOM of your page and pulls out every H2 element it finds, showing the text and the count next to the same figures for the pages that already rank for your keyword. The point is comparison: you can see at a glance whether your page breaks its topic into the same kind of labelled sections that competing pages use, or whether it leans on a single block of text with no structural signposts.
How to interpret it
Look at both presence and implementation, not just a yes/no. An H2 can exist in the markup yet be empty, duplicated across the page, hidden from the rendered output, or so vague that it tells neither a reader nor a crawler what the section covers. Read the actual H2 text against the sections the ranking pages use, and weigh the count: a long page with a single H2 is often under-structured, while a short page carrying a dozen may be fragmenting a thin topic. Treat the ranking pages’ pattern as a reference range, not a target to hit exactly.
| What RankGear checks | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Presence | Whether the rendered page uses H2 at all to divide its body |
| Count | How many sections the page declares, versus the ranking set |
| Content | What each H2 says, so you can judge whether sections are labelled clearly |
Example
A pricing page has one H1, “RankGear Pricing”, and then several hundred words with no H2s at all. In Content Report → Headings, the top-ranking pages for the same query each split their body into H2 sections such as “Plans and tiers”, “What’s included”, and “Frequently asked questions”. The report surfaces the gap, pointing you toward reorganising the page into labelled sections rather than one undifferentiated block.
Important considerations
- RankGear reads the rendered DOM, so an H2 injected by JavaScript will be counted while one that never renders will not, even if it sits in the source HTML.
- Clean heading structure aids accessibility and machine readability, but adding H2s does not by itself make a page rank.
- The figures from ranking pages are comparative indicators of what tends to work for this query, not a Google score or a rule; correlation is not causation.
- Match H2 text to real sections of content. A heading that labels nothing meaningful adds structure in name only.
Related terms
Part of the RankGear glossary · how RankGear measures · the 870 factors.