How to fix empty heading on Adobe Commerce (Magento)

Steps for Adobe Commerce (Magento)

1. SSH into your server (or use your deployment pipeline) and search theme template files under app/design/frontend/<Vendor>/<theme>/ for heading tags: `grep -rn '<h[1-6][^>]*></h[1-6]>' .`
2. Open each identified .phtml or .html (Knockout/Hyva) template file in your editor.
3. For hardcoded empty headings, add meaningful text or remove the tag. For dynamically-output headings, wrap them in a condition: `<?php if ($block->getTitle()): ?><h2><?= $block->escapeHtml($block->getTitle()) ?></h2><?php endif; ?>`
4. In the Magento Admin, go to Content → Pages or Content → Blocks, open the relevant CMS page/block in the WYSIWYG editor, switch to HTML source view, find empty `<h>` tags, and fix or remove them.
5. Clear the Magento cache: System → Cache Management → Flush Magento Cache, then re-test with axe DevTools.

<h2>Featured Collections</h2>

<!-- If text must be visually hidden but available to screen readers: -->
<h2>
  <span class="sr-only">Featured Collections</span>
  <!-- icon or decorative image here -->
</h2>

<!-- CSS for the sr-only class -->
<style>
.sr-only {
  position: absolute;
  width: 1px;
  height: 1px;
  padding: 0;
  margin: -1px;
  overflow: hidden;
  clip: rect(0, 0, 0, 0);
  white-space: nowrap;
  border: 0;
}
</style>

What is empty heading?

A heading tag (like `<h1>`, `<h2>`, `<h3>`, etc.) exists in your page's code but contains no readable text inside it. This can happen when a developer uses a heading tag purely for visual spacing, when a theme or page-builder leaves a placeholder heading behind, or when an icon or decorative image is placed inside a heading without any accompanying text. Screen readers announce headings to blind and low-vision shoppers as navigation landmarks — when a heading is empty, the screen reader either announces nothing or says something confusing like "heading, level 2" with no label, which breaks the shopper's ability to understand or navigate your page.

Empty headings directly violate WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) and 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels), which are legal compliance benchmarks in many countries under laws such as the ADA (US), AODA (Canada), and EAA (EU). Beyond legal risk, screen-reader users rely on headings to jump quickly between sections — an empty heading wastes a navigation stop and destroys the logical outline of your page. Google also uses heading structure to understand page content hierarchy; empty or meaningless headings weaken your on-page SEO signals and can suppress keyword relevance. Finally, conversion suffers: assistive-technology users who encounter broken navigation are more likely to abandon your store.

See the complete Empty heading guide for every platform and the full background.