Different pages share a main heading
In the reportPages share a normalized primary H1 across a group
duplicate_h1 · Review item
This appears when two or more indexable pages have the same main heading, compared without letter case or extra spaces. Each page's main heading should say what that page is about. Give each page a heading of its own.
Severity: Low. For review: shared headings are common in lists and templates, and do not prove that pages compete.
Why it matters
Semrush's list of site audit issues advises avoiding duplicate content, titles, descriptions and H1 tags. When several pages open with the same heading, visitors and search engines have less to tell them apart by.
What to do
- Look at the finding: it lists the pages that share the heading, and how many also use it as their title.
- Rewrite each heading to name what is specific to that page, such as the product, the place or the date.
- If the pages are copies of one page, keep one and point the others to it with a canonical or a redirect.
When to leave it as it is: if the pages are translations or regional versions with the same wording, or a series meant to share its heading, you can leave it.
What we read
We read the first eligible <h1> with either text or an accessible-name signal on each crawled page, as served, without running JavaScript; headings hidden with the hidden attribute, aria-hidden="true" or inert are left out. Only a selected H1 with captured text can be compared after normalising Unicode, spaces and letter case; an earlier aria-only H1 can prevent comparison of a later textual H1.
Pages are reported as a group when two or more indexable pages share the same main heading. Pages with noindex or a canonical to another page are left out. A group whose pages declare each other as language versions with complete hreflang is kept but hidden by default; with partial hreflang, the finding notes that translations may explain the match.
The check cannot give a clean result when any crawled address could not be read, for example a 404 or a PDF, and a group whose hreflang could not be read in full is not reported.
Example & evidence
Illustrative example — two pages' headings, not a live audit.
https://bakery.example/cakes/lemon/ and https://bakery.example/cakes/chocolate/ both have:
<h1>Our cakes</h1>Two indexable pages share one main heading, so they are reported as a group.
<h1>Lemon cake</h1>A possible correction for the first page; the second gets Chocolate cake.
Confirm & check again
Check for yourself: open the pages the finding lists and compare the first heading on each.
Check again: Full audit — run a new audit of the site. The finding can close when the former member pages are rechecked and no current duplicate group retains that normalized heading. New pages with the same heading can keep the old group open even after the former members change. Unreadable pages can make the result inconclusive; they do not always prevent closure of the old heading group when the current audit has usable evaluation for it.
Limits & sources
Only the HTML as served is read, so headings added by JavaScript are not seen, and a heading hidden with CSS still counts. Only the first eligible H1 is selected, and only its captured text is compared among pages crawled in this audit; the check does not show that the pages compete in search.
Confidence: High because the headings are read and compared directly.
Sources
- Semrush, What Issues Can Site Audit Identify? — advises avoiding duplicate content, titles, descriptions or h1 tags. Checked 28 September 2026.
Editorial review: 29 September 2026