<header>

The HTML <header> element represents a group of introductory or navigational aids. It may contain some heading elements but also other elements like a logo, a search form, and so on.

Content categories Flow content, palpable content.
Permitted content Flow content, but with no <header> or <footer> descendant.
Tag omission None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents Any element that accepts flow content. Note that a <header> element must not be a descendant of an <address>, <footer> or another <header> element.
Permitted ARIA roles group, presentation
DOM interface HTMLElement

Usage notes

The <header> element is not sectioning content and therefore does not introduce a new section in the outline. That said, a header element is intended to usually contain the surrounding section's heading (an h1–h6 element), but this is not required.

Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

Example

<header>
  <h1>Main Page Title</h1>
  <img src="mdn-logo-sm.png" alt="MDN logo">
</header>

Main Page Title

MDN

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard
The definition of '<header>' in that specification.		 Living Standard  
HTML5
The definition of '<header>' in that specification.		 Recommendation  

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Edge Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support 5 (Yes) 4.0 (2.0) 9.0 11.10 4.1
Feature Android Edge Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support 2.2 (Yes) 4.0 (2.0) 9.0 11.0 5.0

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

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 Last updated by: Volker-E,