Question-style headings: Crawl Audit check 18

Short answer: check 18 passes if at least one H2 or H3 on the page is phrased as a question, like "How much does it cost?". It's a small check with a sensible idea behind it: people type and speak their searches as questions, and a heading that asks the same question, with the answer right under it, is easy to find and easy to quote. Google doesn't say question headings are a ranking factor, so use them where they read naturally, not everywhere.

What Crawl Audit checks

Crawl Audit looks at every <h2> and <h3> and counts the ones that contain a question mark, or start with how, what, why, when, where, who, can, does, is or are.

• Pass: at least one.
• Warning: none.

One question-style heading is enough. Any FAQ section passes this check, and check 23 accepts question headings as well.

What Google says, and doesn't

We looked for a Google statement that headings should match how people search, and didn't find one. The closest is from Google's SEO Starter Guide: "Think about the words that a user might search for to find a piece of your content." Google's guidance on AI features goes the other way on chasing every phrasing: "you don't have to worry that you don't have enough "long-tail" keywords or haven't captured every variation of how someone might seek content like yours."

So the honest version: a question heading is good writing, not a trick. It helps when the section really answers that question.

When question headings help

• Pricing, process and comparison sections. "How much does a fix cost?" or "What happens in the first two weeks?" are questions buyers have.
• FAQs, obviously. Use the customer's words: "Can I use it without internet?" beats "Offline functionality".
• Not every heading. A page where every heading is a question reads like a quiz. Mix them with headings that name things (check 16).

Put the answer in the first sentence under the question. "Yes, on every plan" or "About two weeks" up front, then the detail.

How to fix it on your platform

• Any platform: change one section heading to the question it answers, and keep it as a real H2 or H3 heading style.
• WordPress: a Heading block set to H2 or H3, with the answer in a Paragraph block right under it.
• Next.js: an <h2> question followed by a <p> answer.

Sources

• Google Search Central, SEO Starter Guide, checked 3 October 2026.
• Google Search Central, guidance on AI features (updated 10 July 2026).