On page SEO use of H2 tags with minimal page content

The customer wants the content of a parent page to be minimal, just images with links to the child pages.

For example:

Page: Vegetables |
Child pages: Cucumber, Carrot, Cabbage.**

Having in mind SEO best practices, should I use in the mark-up h2 headings or since there is almost no other content I should use normal links.

<h1> Vegetables</h1>
<div class="item"><img src="cucumber.jpg"> <a href="#"><h2> cucumber</h2></a></div>
<div class="item"><img src="carrot.jpg"> <a href="#"><h2> carrot</h2></a></div>
<div class="item"><img src="cabbage.jpg"> <a href="#"><h2> cabbage</h2></a></div>

Solution

As long as there is some content between each h2 then you are fine. Otherwise you should use a list:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Simple example</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <header> <!-- Main header - Ignore if it isn't your case -->
      <h1>Vegetables</h1>
    </header>
    <nav> <!-- Main navigation bar - Ignore if it isn't your case -->
      <ul class="vegetables">
        <li class="item"><a href="#" title="Cucumber">Cucumber</a></li>
        <li class="item"><a href="#" title="Carrot">Carrot</a></li>
        <li class="item"><a href="#" title="Cabbage">Cabbage</a></li>
      </ul>
    </nav>
  </body>
</html>