How to fix landmark contentinfo is top level on Adobe Commerce (Magento)

Steps for Adobe Commerce (Magento)

1. Locate your active theme's layout XML and template files, typically under app/design/frontend/<Vendor>/<Theme>/.
2. Open the main page layout XML (e.g. default.xml or cms_index_index.xml) and find the block or container that renders the footer (usually named 'footer' or 'footer_content').
3. In the layout XML, confirm the footer container is a child of the root <page> container (or <body> in the layout), not nested inside the 'main' container.
4. If the footer block is declared inside the 'main' container, move its XML declaration to be a sibling of 'main', placed after it.
5. Open the corresponding .phtml template (e.g. Magento_Theme/templates/html/footer.phtml) and verify the <footer> tag is not wrapped in a <main> or other landmark element within the template itself.
6. Flush the Magento cache (bin/magento cache:flush), reload the storefront, and verify with axe DevTools.

What is landmark contentinfo is top level?

Every webpage typically has a footer that contains things like copyright notices, contact links, and legal disclaimers. In HTML, the `<footer>` tag (or any element with `role="contentinfo"`) is a special navigation landmark that screen readers use to help users jump directly to site-wide footer content. The WCAG rule `landmark-contentinfo-is-top-level` means that this footer landmark must sit at the top level of the page — a direct child of `<body>` — rather than being wrapped inside another landmark element like `<main>`, `<header>`, `<section>`, or `<article>`. When your footer is nested inside another landmark, screen readers get confused about the page's structure and may not correctly announce or navigate to the footer.

Screen reader users — including many people with visual impairments or motor disabilities — rely on landmark regions to skip around a page efficiently, much like sighted users scan headings visually. When your `contentinfo` (footer) landmark is buried inside another landmark, assistive technologies either skip it or mis-announce it, making your site harder or impossible to navigate for these users. This is a WCAG 2.1 failure (Success Criterion 1.3.6 / best practice under 4.1.2), meaning your store may face legal accessibility risk under laws like the ADA (USA), EAA (EU), or AODA (Canada). Fixing it also signals high HTML quality to search engines, which increasingly factor accessibility into crawl quality, and avoids potential legal complaints or demand letters that are increasingly common against ecommerce stores.

See the complete Landmark contentinfo is top level guide for every platform and the full background.