Invisible Barriers: How Empty Links and Heading Tags Break Web Accessibility

Two of the most common structural errors flagged during website audits are empty links and empty heading tags. While invisible to sighted visitors, these phantom elements create severe roadblocks for assistive technologies and harm search engine optimization (SEO).

What Are Empty Headings?

An empty heading occurs when a semantic heading tag (such as <h1>, <h2>, or <h3>) exists in the code but contains no text content.

<!-- An empty heading tag -->
<h2></h2>

Why They Happen

• CMS Glitches: Pressing “Enter” or “Return” in visual editors like WordPress can accidentally create a new block styled as a heading. If you delete the text but leave the block container, the empty HTML tag remains.
• Improper Spacing Practices: Content creators sometimes insert empty headings as a shortcut to force physical, visual spacing between paragraphs instead of using proper CSS padding or margins.

The Impact

• Accessibility Failure: Screen reader users rely heavily on headings to understand information hierarchy and skim through pages. When a screen reader encounters an empty heading, it announces the presence of a heading followed by absolute silence. This confuses users, making them think content is missing. This violates WCAG 2.1 Success Criteria 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships) and 2.4.6 (Headings and Labels).
• SEO Degradation: Search engine bots crawl headings to understand page context. An empty heading—especially an empty <h1>—is a missed opportunity to provide critical contextual keywords, lowering the page’s structural quality score.

How to Fix It

• Delete the Tag: Open your page editor, switch to the HTML/Code view, locate the empty tag, and remove it entirely.
• Use Proper Spacing: Use structural layout settings or custom CSS utility classes within your template layout to add vertical margins rather than forcing visual gaps with structural elements.

What Are Empty Links?

An empty link is an anchor tag (<a>) that lacks descriptive text, an aria-label, or screen reader-accessible content to indicate its destination.

<!-- An empty hyperlink -->
<a href="https://example.com"></a>

Why They Happen

• Icon-Only Buttons: Developers frequently wrap an anchor tag around an icon font or an inline SVG (like a shopping cart or social media logo) without adding any companion text.
• Accidental Content Deletion: Deleting a hyperlinked word in a visual editor sometimes strips the visible text but leaves the active link wrapper floating invisibly in the background.

The Impact

• Blind Navigation: Screen readers navigate from link to link. If a link has no text, the software may skip it entirely, announce “link,” or read out the raw, unhelpful URL string. Because the website fails to inform assistive technology users where the link goes, it breaches WCAG 2.1 Success Criteria 2.4.4 (Link Purpose).
• Broken UX: Users navigating purely via keyboards may tab onto an invisible element, losing track of their visual focus indicator on the screen.

How to Fix It

• Add Descriptive Text: Ensure all text hyperlinks explicitly declare their destination directly inside the element. Avoid vague phrases like “click here”; use precise targets like “Download the handbook”.
• Implement Accessible Labels for Icons: If the link must remain purely visual (such as a magnifying glass icon for a search button), provide a clear fallback for assistive software:

<!-- Proper fix using an aria-label -->
<a href="/search" aria-label="Search the website">
  <i class="fas fa-search" aria-hidden="true"></i>
</a>

Summary Comparison

Regularly running your site through automated scanning platforms—such as the WP ADA Compliance Check Plugin will catch these hidden structural errors before they impact your site traffic and digital compliance.