AEO
Do Question-Based Headings Actually Help AI Cite You?
An audit checks whether question-phrased text sits inside a real h2/h3 heading element — not whether the words on the page happen to form a question. We found our own FAQ sections were failing this exact check, because the questions lived only inside collapsible <summary> tags with no heading wrapped around them.
What did the gap on our own site actually look like?
Every tool page, the free tools index, and the landing page had a working FAQ accordion: a question as the clickable label, an answer that expands underneath. Visually, it looked exactly like a well-structured FAQ section. But the question text lived inside a <summary> element styled to look like a heading — never wrapped in an actual <h2> or <h3> tag.
Why does that distinction matter to an audit, or to an AI crawler?
A heading-based check reads the DOM structure, not the rendered visual style. A crawler scanning for question-phrased headings is looking specifically for h2/h3 elements, because heading tags are the semantic signal that this text is a discrete, addressable unit of content — the same signal AI systems use to decide what to extract and cite. Bold text inside a <summary> gives none of that signal, even though a human reader can't visually tell the difference.
What did fixing it look like?
The fix didn't touch the visual design at all — it added one inline heading tag inside the existing collapsible element:
- Before: question text sat directly inside a styled <summary> tag
- After: the same text wrapped in an inline <h3> inside that same <summary> tag
- The collapsible FAQ UI, styling, and click behavior stayed exactly the same
This one change propagated across every page that shared the FAQ component, without a per-page edit.
What changed after the fix?
Re-running the same audit against a sample tool page and the landing page showed the Question-Based Headings check moving from scoring near zero — because the only real headings on the page were section titles, none phrased as questions — to a measured 56% on the sample tool page and 63% on the landing page, both well past the 30% pass threshold.
| Page | Question-heading ratio after fix |
|---|---|
| Sample free tool page | 56% |
| Landing page | 63% |
If your own FAQ section is built the same way — a collapsible with question text but no heading tag inside it — it's worth checking with a free FAQ schema generator and a full audit to confirm the questions are actually landing as real headings, not just styled text.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does text inside a <summary> tag count as a heading?
No. A question-based headings check looks for real h2/h3 elements in the DOM. Text inside a <summary> tag, even if it's phrased as a question, doesn't count unless it's also wrapped in an actual heading tag.
What percentage of headings need to be questions to pass?
HellSEO's audit requires at least 30% of a page's real h2/h3 headings to be phrased as questions. Below that threshold, the check fails even if the page has a large FAQ section, if that FAQ text isn't in heading tags.
Do all headings need to be questions?
No — a mix works fine. Section headings that organize the page (like 'Pricing' or 'How It Works') can stay as-is; the check only requires that a meaningful share of headings, especially FAQ questions, use real question phrasing in real heading tags.
How do you fix this without changing the visual design?
Wrap the existing question text in an inline h3 inside the summary element — for example <summary><h3 className="inline">Question text</h3></summary> — which keeps the collapsible FAQ UI identical while adding a real heading element to the DOM.
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