Heading tags (H1, H2, H3 etc.) are used to organize and designate the most important parts of a webpage. They are one of the most significant on-page factors in terms of SEO. The H1 tag should be used once per page, as close to the <body> tag as possible, to designate the main theme. The H2’s are used to designate specific sections of the page and can be used several times as needed. H3’s, and up are less important but still can be used to designate important parts within each section.
Why are heading tags important?
When a search engine sends out its spiders to a particular page it looks for certain important information. The number #1 thing it looks for is, what is this page about? Heading tags are used to help convey this. If you’ve ever wondered how Google Adsense determines what kind of ads to display, this is one of the ways Google figures it out.
CSS and header tags
Lets face it. Header tags are ugly and look ridiculous out of the box. A good way to modify your header tags is through CSS. It’s debatable if using CSS decreases a heading tags importance but we’re willing to risk the small amount it will lose to create a better experience for our visitors. Isn’t that what we do all this for anyway? If google, yahoo, or msn don’t like it. Screw em.
H1, H2 Tag Example
Here’s an example of the hierarchy of an article in HTML. H3’s, bold, italics, or underline can be used to support the H2’s. We prefer bold instead of h3’s in a smaller article. A longer article may warrant the use of H3’s though.
<html>
<body>
<h1>Why Google Rules</h1>
<p>Information on why google rules……the h2 tags will be the reasons why<p>
<h2>Visionary Entrepreneurs</h2>
<p>Information on Larry Page and Sergey Brin…<p>
<h2>Algorithm is Sick</h2>
<p>Information on Algorithm and the nerds that came up with it<p>
<h2>Spiders come to my site everyday</h2>
<p>Information on googlebot<p>
<p>Closing paragraph</p>
</body>
</html>
In summary, heading tags are powerful if used correctly. They are an important part of most SE’s algorithms and can increase your rankings for a particular word or phrase. Think of an SE like a librarian trying to figure out where to put their books. Heading tags help clean up the web.
Posted under SEO 101
This post was written by admin on September 3, 2008
