diff --git a/lib/checks/navigation/heading-order-after.js b/lib/checks/navigation/heading-order-after.js
index 9959cb6e3b..e21606471f 100644
--- a/lib/checks/navigation/heading-order-after.js
+++ b/lib/checks/navigation/heading-order-after.js
@@ -11,23 +11,20 @@ export default function headingOrderAfter(results) {
  * Determine check outcome, based on the position of the result in the headingOrder
  */
 function getHeadingOrderOutcome(result, headingOrder) {
-  const index = headingOrder.findIndex(heading => heading.result === result);
+  const index = findHeadingOrderIndex(headingOrder, result.node.ancestry)
   const currLevel = headingOrder[index]?.level ?? -1;
   const prevLevel = headingOrder[index - 1]?.level ?? -1;
+
   // First heading always passes
   if (index === 0) {
     return true
   };
-
   // Heading not in the map
   if (currLevel === -1) {
-    return undefined;
-  // Heading level is skipped
-  } else if (currLevel - prevLevel > 1) {
-    return false;
-  } else {
-    return true;
+    return undefined; 
   }
+  // Check if a heading is skipped
+  return (currLevel - prevLevel <= 1)
 }
 
 /**
@@ -40,101 +37,74 @@ function getHeadingOrder(results) {
   results.sort(({ node: nodeA }, { node: nodeB }) => {
     return nodeA.ancestry.length - nodeB.ancestry.length;
   });
-
-  // Recursively push or splice result.data into headingOrder
-  const headingOrder = results.reduce(addResultToHeadingOrder, []);
+  // push or splice result.data into headingOrder
+  const headingOrder = results.reduce(mergeHeadingOrder, []);
+  // Remove all frame placeholders that was fully replaced
   return headingOrder.filter(heading => heading && !heading.replaced);
 }
 
 /**
  * Add the data of a heading-order result to the headingOrder map
  */
-function addResultToHeadingOrder(headingOrder, result) {
-  let frameHeadingOrder = result?.data?.headingOrder;
-  // Only the first selected element in the window has headingOrder info
+function mergeHeadingOrder(mergedHeadingOrder, result) {
+  const frameHeadingOrder = result.data?.headingOrder;
+  const frameAncestry = shortenArray(result.node.ancestry, 1);
+
+  // Only the first result in each frame has a headingOrder. Ignore the rest
   if (!frameHeadingOrder) {
-    setResultInHeadingOrder(headingOrder, result);
-    return headingOrder;
+    return mergedHeadingOrder;
   }
 
-  // Update the ancestry to include frame information
-  frameHeadingOrder = frameHeadingOrder.map(heading => {
-    return normalizeHeading(heading, result);
+  // Prepend node ancestry to each heading.ancestry
+  const normalizedHeadingOrder = frameHeadingOrder.map(heading => {
+    return addFrameToHeadingAncestry(heading, frameAncestry);
   });
 
-  const index = getFrameIndex(headingOrder, result);
+  // Find if the result is from a frame previously processed
+  const index = getFrameIndex(mergedHeadingOrder, frameAncestry);
   // heading is not in a frame, stick 'm in at the end.
   if (index === -1) {
-    headingOrder.push(...frameHeadingOrder);
+    mergedHeadingOrder.push(...normalizedHeadingOrder);
   } else {
-    // Mark the frame for later removal
-    // Keep it, for nested iframes where a parent has no headings
-    headingOrder[index].replaced = true;
-    headingOrder.splice(index, 0, ...frameHeadingOrder);
+    // Flag the frame placeholder so it can be deleted later
+    mergedHeadingOrder[index].replaced = true;
+    mergedHeadingOrder.splice(index, 0, ...normalizedHeadingOrder);
   }
-  return headingOrder;
+  return mergedHeadingOrder;
 }
 
 /**
- * Determine where the iframe results fit into the top-level
- * heading order
+ * Determine where the iframe results fit into the top-level heading order
+ * 
+ * If a frame has no headings, but it does have iframes we might not have a result.
+ * We can account for this by finding the closest ancestor we do know about.
  */
-function getFrameIndex(headingOrder, result) {
-  let index = -1;
-  const ancestry = shortenArray(result.node.ancestry, 1);
-  // If a frame has no headings, but it does have iframes we might
-  // not have a result. We can account for this by finding the closest
-  // ancestor we do know about.
-  while (ancestry.length && index === -1) {
-    index = headingOrder.findIndex(heading => {
-      return matchAncestry(heading.ancestry, ancestry);
-    });
-    ancestry.pop();
+function getFrameIndex(headingOrder, frameAncestry) {
+  while (frameAncestry.length) {
+    const index = findHeadingOrderIndex(headingOrder, frameAncestry);
+    if (index !== -1) {
+      return index;
+    }
+    frameAncestry = shortenArray(frameAncestry, 1)
   }
-  return index;
+  return -1;
 }
 
 /**
- * Find the heading based on ancestry, and set the result property
+ * Find the index of a heading in the headingOrder by matching ancestries
  */
-function setResultInHeadingOrder(headingOrder, result) {
-  const ancestry = result.node.ancestry;
-  const index = headingOrder.findIndex(heading => {
+function findHeadingOrderIndex(headingOrder, ancestry) {
+  return headingOrder.findIndex(heading => {
     return matchAncestry(heading.ancestry, ancestry);
   });
-
-  if (index === -1) {
-    // Something went wrong, set it to incomplete
-    result.result = undefined;
-    return;
-  }
-
-  headingOrder[index] = {
-    ...headingOrder[index],
-    result
-  };
-}
-
-/**
- * Add all required props to the heading
- */
-function normalizeHeading(heading, result) {
-  const ancestry = combineAncestry(result, heading);
-  const resultMatches = matchAncestry(result.node.ancestry, ancestry);
-  return {
-    ...heading,
-    result: resultMatches ? result : undefined,
-    ancestry
-  };
 }
 
 /**
- * Take the frame ancestry from a result, and add it to the ancestry
- * of a heading.
+ * Prepend the frame ancestry of a node to heading.ancestry
  */
-function combineAncestry(result, heading) {
-  const frameAncestry = shortenArray(result.node.ancestry, 1);
-  return frameAncestry.concat(heading.ancestry);
+function addFrameToHeadingAncestry(heading, frameAncestry) {
+  const ancestry = frameAncestry.concat(heading.ancestry);
+  return { ...heading, ancestry };
 }
 
 /**
@@ -146,13 +116,13 @@ function matchAncestry(ancestryA, ancestryB) {
   }
   return ancestryA.every((selectorA, index) => {
     const selectorB = ancestryB[index];
-    if (Array.isArray(selectorA)) {
-      if (selectorA.length !== selectorB.length) {
-        return false;
-      }
-      return selectorA.every((str, index) => selectorB[index] === str);
+    if (!Array.isArray(selectorA)) {
+      return selectorA === selectorB;
+    }
+    if (selectorA.length !== selectorB.length) {
+      return false;
     }
-    return selectorA === selectorB;
+    return selectorA.every((str, index) => selectorB[index] === str);
   });
 }