What it means
A page can contain a menu, account controls, product details, and a footer. A main landmark marks the part that fulfils the page's central purpose. Assistive technology can use landmarks to offer navigation between these areas without making the visitor traverse every repeated link.
For an ordinary page, aim for one clear main area. More complex documents may contain separate document contexts, so unusual structures deserve a review rather than a mechanical rule. The landmark should surround the relevant content; inserting an empty main element merely to satisfy a detector is unhelpful.
Hypothetical example: a service page
Imagine a repairs business whose page contains a site-wide navigation bar, a description of its repair service, prices, booking instructions, and a footer. The service information belongs in the main area; the repeated navigation remains outside it.
The page's descriptive H1 can sit within that area. Giving the navigation an H1 or adding several empty main containers would not clarify the service. This example describes a possible structure, not a measured website or a guaranteed navigation outcome.
How BLURSOR measures it
In the report: Main content area · Page navigation structure
BLURSOR's comparison row reports whether a main element or main role was found. The live probe checks the document for either marker. When the probe is unavailable, the checker can search retained raw or rendered HTML instead; the displayed method tells you which evidence was used.
The separate page-structure finding combines main-landmark presence with the observed H1 count and expects one H1. That is BLURSOR's simplified review rule. The main-landmark row alone does not inspect landmark nesting, verify that the right content is inside, or establish that only one main area exists.
What to do next
- Ask your developer to identify the primary content in the page template and use the native main element where appropriate.
- Check the browser's landmark navigation and heading outline on representative pages, including pages with little content or an error message.
- Review the H1 as the page's visible subject heading. Treat heading structure and landmark placement as related but distinct decisions.
What it cannot tell you
- Present means a marker was detected. It does not prove that the content is correctly organised or that a visitor or agent completed a task.
- A challenged or otherwise unavailable page cannot supply a reliable structural result. An unavailable value is not evidence that the landmark is absent.
Sources and further reading
The definitions below describe the underlying concepts. The measurement section describes BLURSOR’s own checks.