How to fix landmark main is top level on Webflow
Move the `<main>` element (or `role="main"`) so it is a direct child of `<body>` and not nested inside any other landmark element such as `<header>`, `<nav>`, `<aside>`, or `<footer>`.
Steps for Webflow
- Open your project in the Webflow Designer.
- In the Navigator panel (left sidebar), inspect the page structure. Find the element tagged as `<main>` — Webflow lets you set the HTML tag of any element. Click the element, then in the right-hand Settings panel (the gear icon) confirm its Tag is set to `Main`.
- Ensure this `<main>` element is a direct child of `<body>` in the Navigator. It should be a sibling of your `<header>` (Navbar/Header section) and `<footer>` elements, not nested inside either.
- If `<main>` is inside a `<header>` or other landmark, drag it in the Navigator to sit at the body level alongside those elements.
- Publish the site and verify with axe DevTools or WAVE browser extension.
<!-- ✅ CORRECT: <main> is a top-level sibling of other landmarks -->
<body>
<header>…site logo and branding…</header>
<nav>…navigation links…</nav>
<main>
…unique page content…
</main>
<footer>…footer links…</footer>
</body>
<!-- ❌ INCORRECT: <main> is nested inside <header> -->
<body>
<header>
…site logo and branding…
<main> <!-- wrong! <main> must not live inside <header> -->
…page content…
</main>
</header>
<footer>…</footer>
</body>What is landmark main is top level?
Every webpage should have one clearly defined "main content" region that screen readers and other assistive technologies can jump to directly. In HTML this is the `<main>` element (or any element marked with `role="main"`). The WCAG rule "landmark-main-is-top-level" means that this main region must sit at the top level of the page structure — as a direct child of `<body>` — and must not be wrapped inside another landmark region like `<header>`, `<nav>`, `<aside>`, or `<footer>`. Nesting `<main>` inside another landmark confuses the accessibility tree and breaks the expected page hierarchy that assistive technologies rely on.
Screen reader users — including many people with visual impairments — use keyboard shortcuts to skip straight to the main content of a page, bypassing repetitive navigation menus. When `<main>` is incorrectly nested inside another landmark, that shortcut either fails silently or lands the user in the wrong place, forcing them to tab through every menu item on every page visit. This is a WCAG 2.1 / 2.2 failure (Best Practice, closely tied to Success Criterion 1.3.6 and the bypass-blocks requirement at 2.4.1), which creates legal accessibility risk under ADA Title III in the US, the European Accessibility Act, and similar laws globally. Beyond legal exposure, poor accessibility reduces your potential customer base and signals poor technical quality to search engines that increasingly factor accessibility into crawl quality.
See the complete Landmark main is top level guide for every platform and the full background.
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