Matan · WCAG · Robust
Table headers (WCAG)
Data tables need <th> or scope so header cells can be announced (WCAG 1.3.1).
Pass condition in our engine: Each <table> has th, scope or headers attributes — or there are no tables.
This WCAG check is part of SEO-GEO scoring 2.2.1, last updated 2026-09-18. About 90 percent of the evaluation runs on the HTML we crawl, so you can verify the same pass condition with a free report.
1. Problem description
Layout tables are discouraged; if you use a table for data, first row/column should be headers. Tables used for grid layout without headers fail this heuristic — convert those to CSS grid.
2. Most common causes
- Excel-to-HTML paste with only <td>.
- Responsive “tables” made of divs (those skip this check).
3. How to fix it
- Use <th scope="col"> or scope="row".
- Add a <caption> when it helps.
- Do not use tables for layout.
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