When creating websites for our clients, we normally recommend that they avoid unnecessary capitalisation on any text content, including on titles and headings.
Our company style guide on this matter is simple: as standard, we use sentence case for titles and subtitles. This means capitalising only the first word of a sentence (plus any proper nouns or other words that would usually be capitalised). However, we do sometimes use all capitals (more about this further down…).
Why we avoid title case
There are a number of reasons we prefer using sentence case on the websites that we design.
1. Sentence case titles are easier to read
Here’s an example:
- Sentence case: Why we don’t capitalise the first letter of every word in a title – and neither should you
- Title case: Why We Don’t Capitalise The First Letter Of Every Word In A Title – And Neither Should You
Your brain naturally wants to pause at capital letters. So, when the first letter of every word is capitalised, your reading pace becomes jolty and fragmented – especially with longer headings. Sentence case flows more naturally because it mirrors the way we read standard sentences.
2. Sentence case titles can improve usability
When the first letter of every word is capitalised, it becomes harder to tell what’s a proper noun and what isn’t. This can confuse users, especially in navigation menus, buttons, or settings’ labels where clarity is important.
3. Sentence case titles help keep styles consistent
Capitalising the first letter of every word in a heading can quickly spiral into inconsistency. Here’s what often happens, especially when multiple people have access to editing and updating website content:
- One person capitalises the first letter of every single word of a title (including minor words like ‘and’, ‘of’, ‘the’ etc.).
- Then another person thinks that looks a bit much, so they don’t capitalise any of the minor words.
- Next, someone isn’t sure what counts as a ‘minor word’, so they guess, capitalising some but not others.
- And finally, someone else isn’t sure what is actually considered a title – what about a form label? A button? A pop-up message? A tab?
- Now every web page has headings all following different capitalisation rules.
The result is a messy, inconsistent-looking website that looks and feels unprofessional and could even be considered grammatically incorrect in places. The solution is to use a sentence style case for titles. This will always be grammatically correct, so no worries there, and it is a style that is very easy to implement consistently throughout your whole website.
4. Sentence case titles can improve brand perception
Capitalisation affects more than just grammar – it affects how your brand is perceived. Too many capitalised words can make a site feel loud or cluttered. Clean, consistent sentence case reads as modern, trustworthy, and thoughtfully designed.
But what if you want to make headings stand out?
We understand that titles need to look bold and be eye-catching. But you don’t need to capitalise the first letter of every word to achieve this result. That’s what a good designer and design styles are for.
Good use of layout, font weight, colour, spacing, or size is a much better way to make headings stand out. Typography and design should do the heavy lifting – not capital letters on the beginning of every word.
Are there any exceptions? Sometimes, yes:
- Short titles (1–3 words max) can occasionally work better with a particular design when in title case – but only if:
- The titles are consistently short across your entire website.
- Visual symmetry matters more than grammatical styling.
- Limited formatting options. When using tools like widgets or plugins where you can’t apply font styles, capitalisation might be the only way to visually emphasise and distinguish a heading from body text.
- ALL CAPITALS can work stylistically, but it should be a conscious design choice. As you can see, we’ve chosen to use the ‘all capitals’ style on our own website, but only for very short, main page headings. All other titles use sentence case. This is a clear use for a specific design purpose and because of this, in this instance, it works.
What do others do?
Some very well-known organisations avoid title case on their websites, with some great examples including:
These websites use clean, readable sentence case across all pages – and they work particularly well on the longer headings and subheadings.
The most important rule is to be consistent
We do have clients who will always want to use title case in their headings, and if this is what a client really wants then of course we will be happy to design their website in whatever style they choose.
So, if you still absolutely must use title case on your headings, just be sure to decide your style rules upfront and be sure to stick to them.
- Are you capitalising prepositions like ‘from’ or ‘through’?
- What about articles like ‘the’ or ‘an’?
- Are you suddenly capitalising an entire word when previously you hadn’t?
These little inconsistencies add up – and yes, editors do notice. But more importantly, so do website visitors. And when your website visitors start to notice inconsistencies, they might also start to question the quality and professionalism of your brand.
Final thoughts
Capitalisation might seem like a small detail – but it has a big impact on readability, usability, and brand trust, and it’s important to get it right at the beginning of a website project, because making changes later can be time consuming and costly.
To summarise:
- Use sentence case in titles and subtitles.
- Let design do the visual work and emphasise titles.
- Be consistent with whatever style you choose.
If you only remember one thing from this blog, let it be this: You do not need to capitalise the first letter of every word of a title to make it stand out.