W3C HTML validation error - Section lacks heading. Consider using h2-h6 elements to add identifying headings to all sections

Question

I am getting a warning when I try to validate my page in https://validator.w3.org:

Section lacks heading. Consider using h2-h6 elements to add identifying headings to all sections.

My code is as below:

<section id="slider-wrapper-new">
    <div class="slider-container-new">
        // some code..
    </div>
</section>

How can I remove this error? Do I need to add h1-h6 tags inside the section heading?

Answer 1

Either:

1. Add a heading (h1, ..., h6) tag to your section element.
2. Replace your section element with a div element.
3. Ignore the warning. The message you're seeing is a non-normative usage recommendation, as per the HTML5 spec (highlighting mine):

   The theme of each section should be identified, typically by including a heading (h1-h6 element) as a child of the section element.

Answer 2

Your code is valid (if you use a closing </section> instead of </div>).

The W3C validator reports a warning, not an error.

While it is useful to provide a heading for each sectioning content element, it is not required.

The only way to prevent this warning when using sectioning content elements is, well, to follow the advice by providing a heading content element. If you’d use a div instead, your document outline would be different and likely wrong (if you used section correctly in the first place).

Answer 3

You have to put an h1,h2,h3 inside your section:

<section id="slider-wrapper-new">
 <div class="slider-container-new">
  <h3>My Title</h3>
    // some code..
 </div>