Headings should not be empty

Who this affects

A heading element contains no text, producing a silent entry in the page outline.

How to fix it

Remove the empty heading or give it content.

Effort Low · ~5 min

Before and after

<h2></h2>
<h2><img src="/img/deal.png" alt=""></h2>

<h2>This week's offers</h2>

How to check it by hand

Tab to the control and listen to what a screen reader announces. It should say what the control is and what it does. "Button" on its own is a failure.

Automated testing settles roughly a third of the WCAG success criteria. This rule is one an automated tool detects reliably — but a clean automated result is not proof of conformance.

Reference

Deque's technical write-up for this rule: empty-heading