Does ATS Read Headers and Footers? Where Contact Info Goes

Some applicant tracking systems skip text stored in a Word or Google Docs header or footer, so a phone number or email placed there can go missing. Parsers differ and vendors do not publish the rule, so the low-risk habit is to put your name, phone, email and LinkedIn URL in the main body at the top of page one, as ordinary text.

Part of the complete ATS resume guide.

The trap is the difference between "the top of the page" and a "header object"

This is where people get tripped up, because two very different things share the word "header."

There is the visual top of your page, the first few lines where your name and contact details usually sit. That area is completely fine, as long as the text living there is ordinary body text. An ATS reads it like any other paragraph.

Then there is a true document header, a special object you create when you double-click into the margin in Microsoft Word, or use Insert then Header in Google Docs. The same applies to footers at the bottom. This content is stored separately from the main text flow. It repeats on every page automatically. And that separate storage is exactly the problem. Some parsers walk through the main body and never open the header or footer container, so anything inside it can be skipped.

So the headline you see at the top of a printed resume is not the issue. The issue is how you built it. If you typed your name into a header object to keep it pinned to the page, you may have hidden your most important line from the software doing the first round of screening. A recruiter who cannot find a way to contact you cannot call you, so it is not worth the risk.

What is safe and what is risky: a placement table

Use this table as a quick reference next time you open your resume. The question is always the same: is this living in a header or footer object, or is it body text?

The pattern is clear. Anything a recruiter or parser actually needs to read and act on belongs in the body. The only thing that is genuinely safe in a footer is a page number, and even that is optional.

Page numbers in footers: harmless but usually pointless

Page numbers are the one exception people ask about. A page number sitting in a footer rarely causes parsing trouble, because no parser is hunting for "Page 2 of 3" as a meaningful field. It is just noise the system ignores.

The real question is whether you need them at all. On a one-page or two-page resume, page numbers add nothing. The reader can see how many pages there are. They take up space and add visual clutter for zero benefit. Reserve them for longer documents like an academic CV that runs four or more pages, where a reviewer might actually lose their place. For a standard resume, skip them.

How to move contact info into the body

If you suspect your details are stuck in a header object, the fix takes about two minutes.

1. Open your resume and double-click into the header area at the top. If your name and contact info highlight as a separate editable region, that confirms they are in a header object.
2. Select that text and delete it from the header.
3. Click into the very first line of the main document body and retype your name, phone, email, and LinkedIn URL there as normal text.
4. Style it with font size and bold to look like a heading. Visually it will look identical. Structurally it is now readable.

That is the whole fix. The resume looks the same to a human, but now a parser can find you.

A quick check, and its limit

Open your resume, select all, copy, and paste into a plain text editor. Check that your name, phone and email appear, in order, near the top.

Be aware of what this test cannot prove. Many PDF viewers and word processors include header and footer text when you copy, so a clean paste does not show that a particular parser reads the header. The dependable rule is simply not to rely on it: if your contact details are typed in the body, there is nothing to lose. For a closer look at what a parser extracts, see how to test your ATS score or run your file through the ATS checker.

One more layout decision interacts with all of this: the file format you export. A header object can behave differently depending on whether you save as PDF or Word, so it is worth reading PDF vs Word for ATS before you submit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does an ATS read headers and footers in a resume?

It depends on the system, and that uncertainty is exactly why you should not risk it. Some platforms may read header and footer objects and some skip them, and vendors rarely document which. Because you cannot know which system a given employer uses, treat header and footer objects as unreadable and keep all important information in the document body.

Where should I put my contact information on a resume?

Put your name, phone number, email, and LinkedIn URL in the first few lines of the main body of the document, styled as plain body text. It will look exactly like a header visually, but a parser can read it. Never place contact details in a Word or Google Docs header object.

Are page numbers in the footer bad for ATS?

No, page numbers in a footer are usually harmless because parsers ignore them. The catch is that they are also unnecessary on a one-page or two-page resume. Leave them off short resumes and reserve them for long multi-page CVs.

How do I check if my header is breaking ATS parsing?

Select all the text, copy it and paste it into a plain text editor. If your contact details are missing or scrambled, move them into the body. Note that a clean paste does not prove a parser reads headers, since many viewers include header text when copying. The safest fix is to keep the details in the body regardless, then re-check with an ATS checker.