How to fix landmark contentinfo is top level on WooCommerce

Steps for WooCommerce

1. In your WordPress admin, go to Appearance → Theme File Editor (or use a local/staging environment with a code editor for safety).
2. Open your active theme's 'footer.php' file.
3. Check whether the <footer> tag inside footer.php is wrapped by a parent element that carries a landmark role (e.g. <main>, <div role="main">, <article>). Also check 'page.php' or 'index.php' to see how footer.php is included relative to </main>.
4. If </main> closes inside footer.php before the <footer> tag, you are fine. If <footer> appears before </main> closes, move the </main> closing tag to appear before the opening <footer> tag.
5. If the theme uses a wrapper div with role="main" or similar around the footer, remove the footer from inside that wrapper.
6. Save, then use the axe DevTools browser extension on the frontend to verify the landmark structure is correct.

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.