Table of Contents Generator and Heading Checker
Build a table of contents with jump links, add heading ids and check your heading outline.
- Free to use
- Runs in your browser
- No sign-up
Paste an article to see its headings
You get the heading outline with checks, a table of contents with jump links in HTML and Markdown, and your article with an id on every heading. Or press Try an example.
Embed this tool on your websiteFree. Paste one code; it runs in your visitors' browsers.
Copy this code into a page of your site. The tool sets no cookies and sends nothing your visitors type to us. Change height="760" if it needs more room.
About the Table of Contents Generator
Paste an article as HTML, Markdown or text copied from Google Docs, Word or a web page. The tool shows the heading outline as a tree, checks it for a missing or extra H1, skipped levels, and empty, repeated or very long headings, and writes a table of contents with jump links in HTML and Markdown. It also gives back your article with a unique id on every heading, with Hindi headings kept in Hindi. It runs in your browser and changes only the heading tags.
How it works
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01
Paste your article's HTML from your editor's code view, or Markdown, or copy the text from Google Docs and paste it.
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02
Choose which headings go in the list (H2 only, H2 and H3, or down to H4), numbered or bullets, and the heading above the list.
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03
Copy the article with ids, which already has the list before the first section, or copy the list on its own and paste it into your page.
How the jump links work
Each link in the list points to #id, and the heading with that id gets the same value, so a click scrolls to the section. Ids are made from the heading text in lower case with hyphens, for example #warm-up-before-you-start. Hindi letters are kept, so "बारिश में वर्कआउट के फायदे" becomes #बारिश-में-वर्कआउट-के-फायदे. Headings with the same words get -2 and -3, and ids already on your headings are kept unless they are used twice.
What Google says about headings
Google's SEO Starter Guide suggests breaking long content into paragraphs and sections, with headings that help people find their way. It also says heading order does not matter for Google Search, though headings in order help people using screen readers, and that there is no ideal number of headings. Our checks for one H1, skipped levels and long headings are our checklist for readers, not Google rules.
What this tool cannot do
It reads only the article you paste, not your live page, so it cannot see headings your theme adds, such as the page title or a sidebar. It does not style the list: add your own CSS for the nav with the class "toc". Some website builders and Markdown sites make their own heading ids; if a jump link does not work, compare the ids. Google indexes the page as a whole, not each section.
Frequently asked questions
Does a table of contents help SEO?
Google's guidance does not name a table of contents as a ranking factor. Its SEO Starter Guide says headings help people navigate long pages, and a list of jump links helps readers reach the part they need. Google may also show "Read more" links in a result that lead to a section of a page; Google decides when.
Will Google treat each section as its own page?
No. A jump link (#id) leads to a part of the same page, and Google says Google Search generally does not support URL fragments (the part after #). For "Read more" links, Google suggests keeping sections visible when the page loads, not hidden in tabs or expandable sections.
Do Hindi headings work as ids?
Yes. Ids can use any letters, so the tool keeps Hindi words and joins them with hyphens. Browsers show them in Hindi, but a copied link may show the part after # as percent codes such as %E0%A4%AC. Both forms lead to the same section.
Should the list include H3 headings?
For a long guide with many sub-sections, H2 and H3 give readers a fuller map. For a short post, H2 only keeps the list short. This is our suggestion; Google has no rule about it.
Why are some headings flagged?
Our checklist flags more than one H1, skipped levels (such as H2 straight to H4), empty headings, headings used twice, headings over 70 letters and short bold lines that may be headings typed as bold text. Google says heading order does not matter for Google Search, but order helps people using screen readers, and clear headings make the list easier to use.
Related reading
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