Titles and headings
Page titles, headings and subheadings should:
- give a clear indication of what the page is about
- help to break up pages into clearly defined areas
- define the structure of any content area.
Page title
The page title is the main heading for the page you are creating.
As with any heading, page titles should give the user a clear indication of the information on the page and encourage the user to continue reading.
Page titles should be unique. Also, as page titles are used by search engines to highlight the content of a page, it is important that they are meaningful when viewed out of the context of the page and that they accurately describe the content of each page.
Sentence case should be used when naming pages, except when referring to the title of a project or another proper name.
Examples of page titles:
Navigation title
The navigation title of a page appears in any fixed navigation element, including the left-hand navigation, tabs created by the use of sibling navigation, and in the breadcrumb.
The navigation title is usually an abbreviated form of the page title and should only be one or two words if possible.
It is essential that the navigation title makes sense in its own right so that users can easily identify pages when the titles are displayed in the navigation.
The table below gives examples of page titles and navigation titles:
| Page title | Navigation title |
|---|---|
| Using Storyline for early literacy | Using Storyline |
| Resources for primary and S1-S2 education | Resources |
Page title attribute
The title attribute for the page will appear when a user hovers their mouse over a link to the page, either within the navigation or from another page on the site.
The page title attribute should offer more detailed information about the content of the page than the page title. The title attribute should be written as a short descriptive sentence.
Title attributes should:
- be short and descriptive
- use sentence case (with the exception of abbreviations and proper names).
No full stop is required at the end of a title attribute.
Examples of page title attributes (roll your mouse over the links to see the title attribute):
| Page title | Title attribute |
|---|---|
| Resource database | Search the resource database |
| Email bulletin | Subscribe to the Early Years email bulletin |
| Contact us | Contact the Literacy team |
Headings and subheadings
Headings and subheadings should be used to define the structure of any content area. Different-sized headings can create a clear visual hierarchy on each page.
Here are some tips for writing effective headings:
- Make your headings meaningful - they should accurately describe the content they introduce.
- Be clear, complete and concise - 8 to 10 words maximum.
- Use keywords - highlight the key points of the content.
- Don't overuse - too many headings can clutter the page.
- Use sentence case.
The following pages make effective use of headings: