diff --git a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Helpers/Markdown.cs b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Helpers/Markdown.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9ab56ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Helpers/Markdown.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+// Licensed to Elasticsearch B.V under one or more agreements.
+// Elasticsearch B.V licenses this file to you under the Apache 2.0 License.
+// See the LICENSE file in the project root for more information
+
+namespace Elastic.Markdown.Helpers;
+
+public static class MarkdownStringExtensions
+{
+	public static string StripMarkdown(this string markdown)
+	{
+		using var writer = new StringWriter();
+		Markdig.Markdown.ToPlainText(markdown, writer);
+		return writer.ToString().TrimEnd('\n');
+	}
+}
diff --git a/src/Elastic.Markdown/IO/MarkdownFile.cs b/src/Elastic.Markdown/IO/MarkdownFile.cs
index 03cdc01..230fcbe 100644
--- a/src/Elastic.Markdown/IO/MarkdownFile.cs
+++ b/src/Elastic.Markdown/IO/MarkdownFile.cs
@@ -42,11 +42,21 @@ public DocumentationGroup? Parent
 	public string? UrlPathPrefix { get; }
 	private MarkdownParser MarkdownParser { get; }
 	public YamlFrontMatter? YamlFrontMatter { get; private set; }
-	public string? Title { get; private set; }
+	public string? TitleRaw { get; private set; }
+
+	public string? Title
+	{
+		get => _title;
+		private set
+		{
+			_title = value?.StripMarkdown();
+			TitleRaw = value;
+		}
+	}
 	public string? NavigationTitle
 	{
 		get => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(_navigationTitle) ? _navigationTitle : Title;
-		private set => _navigationTitle = value;
+		private set => _navigationTitle = value?.StripMarkdown();
 	}
 
 	//indexed by slug
@@ -64,6 +74,7 @@ public string? NavigationTitle
 
 	private bool _instructionsParsed;
 	private DocumentationGroup? _parent;
+	private string? _title;
 
 	public MarkdownFile[] YieldParents()
 	{
@@ -156,7 +167,7 @@ private void ReadDocumentInstructions(MarkdownDocument document)
 			.Select(h => (h.GetData("header") as string, h.GetData("anchor") as string))
 			.Select(h => new PageTocItem
 			{
-				Heading = h.Item1!.Replace("`", "").Replace("*", ""),
+				Heading = h.Item1!.StripMarkdown(),
 				Slug = (h.Item2 ?? h.Item1).Slugify()
 			})
 			.ToList();
diff --git a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Slices/HtmlWriter.cs b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Slices/HtmlWriter.cs
index aac30ed..23ef8ae 100644
--- a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Slices/HtmlWriter.cs
+++ b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Slices/HtmlWriter.cs
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ public async Task<string> RenderLayout(MarkdownFile markdown, Cancel ctx = defau
 		var slice = Index.Create(new IndexViewModel
 		{
 			Title = markdown.Title ?? "[TITLE NOT SET]",
+			TitleRaw = markdown.TitleRaw ?? "[TITLE NOT SET]",
 			MarkdownHtml = html,
 			PageTocItems = markdown.TableOfContents.Values.ToList(),
 			Tree = DocumentationSet.Tree,
diff --git a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Slices/Index.cshtml b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Slices/Index.cshtml
index 0a03dbc..3abb070 100644
--- a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Slices/Index.cshtml
+++ b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Slices/Index.cshtml
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+@using Markdig
 @inherits RazorSliceHttpResult<IndexViewModel>
 @implements IUsesLayout<Elastic.Markdown.Slices._Layout, LayoutViewModel>
 @functions {
@@ -16,7 +17,8 @@
 	};
 }
 <section id="elastic-docs-v3">
-	<h1>@(Model.Title)</h1>
+	@* This way it's correctly rendered as <h1>text</h1> instead of <h1><p>text</p></h1> *@
+	@(new HtmlString(Markdown.ToHtml("# " + Model.TitleRaw)))
 	@if (Model.Applies is not null)
 	{
 		await RenderPartialAsync(Applies.Create(Model.Applies));
diff --git a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Slices/_ViewModels.cs b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Slices/_ViewModels.cs
index 3e89a70..987f5f6 100644
--- a/src/Elastic.Markdown/Slices/_ViewModels.cs
+++ b/src/Elastic.Markdown/Slices/_ViewModels.cs
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ namespace Elastic.Markdown.Slices;
 public class IndexViewModel
 {
 	public required string Title { get; init; }
+	public required string TitleRaw { get; init; }
 	public required string MarkdownHtml { get; init; }
 	public required DocumentationGroup Tree { get; init; }
 	public required IReadOnlyCollection<PageTocItem> PageTocItems { get; init; }
@@ -26,6 +27,7 @@ public class IndexViewModel
 public class LayoutViewModel
 {
 	public string Title { get; set; } = "Elastic Documentation";
+	public string RawTitle { get; set; } = "Elastic Documentation";
 	public required IReadOnlyCollection<PageTocItem> PageTocItems { get; init; }
 	public required DocumentationGroup Tree { get; init; }
 	public required MarkdownFile CurrentDocument { get; init; }