The Importance of H1 Tags In SEO?

[justlukeyou]

I have read various blogs and forums which suggest that many site designers dont bother to use H1 tags however they can be useful in SEO purposes.

I am planning to use them on http://www.pinkheadphones.co.uk although I am puzzled as to why they are not widely used.

[stoneslinks]

You can use H1 tag, its recommended by Google itself.

[rhysboy84]

They are fairly well used. Though I don't think they are as important as a lot of people think they are.

Ideally you should use them for what they should be used for - the main heading on the site, what this page is about. H1 tags also should only be used once on a site really, with the other headers making sub headings.

They can be useful in SEO because they help weigh importance on what the page is about. Nothing more.

[AlexDawson]

Originally Posted by rhysboy84

H1 tags also should only be used once on a site really, with the other headers making sub headings.

That's why their not used widely, while they do hold influence on the page they should only be used once and to declare the title of the site / page (beyond that of the title in the head of the document), using more than one H1 on a page could be deemed as abusive use of the element if you want to talk semantics which could mean search engines may think your being spammy

[hooperman]

Originally Posted by AlexDawson

That's why their not used widely

I think you are misinterpreting the question (note that I didn't say "you are completely wrong!" ). Your use of the word "widely" is different to the OP's. Nobody is suggesting that we use more than one <h1> per page. If you look at the OP's post, they are wondering why <h1>s aren't more widely used by webmasters. They aren't asking why webmasters don't use more than one per page:

Originally Posted by justlukeyou

I have read various blogs and forums which suggest that many site designers dont bother to use H1 tags...

[ryanhellyer]

Originally Posted by rhysboy84

H1 tags also should only be used once on a site really, with the other headers making sub headings.

I think you meant:

H1 tags also should only be used once on a page really, with the other headers making sub headings.

[cbp]

SEOmoz's testing have shown that they not nearly as weighted as high now as they were in the past.

[bluedreamer]

^ probably due to over abuse?

[AlexDawson]

Perhaps, but I think with the considerations of how easy to abuse it is and how hard it is to know what's semantically correct its probably the result of it's own condition, don't get me wrong I am not against using H1 element's but I was just trying to denote that many people just don't know how to tackle them

[joelchrist]

Yeah. H1 tag is recommendable by google for best SEO tactics.

[miracleman12]

Just use them, but use them as they are intended...as the heading of the page. If you don't like they way it looks (type too big or too small) just style it with CSS.

[Stormrider]

You SHOULD use H1 tags, otherwise you can't use any other heading tags - you aren't allowed to skip levels with heading tags (ie, you can't use H2 without it being under an H1 tag). Also, it is complete rubbish that you can't use more than 1 on a page - they aren't necessarily just for the page title, that's what the <title> tag is for. They are just a top level heading - and you might have several of those on 1 page (although probably not that often).

[r937]

Originally Posted by Stormrider

you aren't allowed to skip levels with heading tags (ie, you can't use H2 without it being under an H1 tag).

correction:

you can skip levels with heading tags, but you shouldn't (ie, you can use H2 without it being under an H1 tag, but you shouldn't).

[c2uk]

Originally Posted by justlukeyou

they are not widely used.

I'm pretty sure any web designer/developer worth his salt uses h1 tags. they might be hiding them using css techniques to replace the h1 tag with an image but it's still there for the search engine to read - and this isn't some blackhat SEO technique as long as the h1 tag doesn't conveys something different than the image.

[Hosting24]

I remember old days when it was possible to get ranked well by using tons of keywords in h1 and h2 tags.

Unfortunately, h1 tags are not so important for search engines today. I still use them for page headings, still...

[the.peregrine]

Heading tags are a key accessibility tool and they help establish good page structure. Well-worded headings also give search engines clues about relevant content, but just any old H1 heading won't do. If your heading says "Trains," it isn't as useful to search engines as one that is more specific like "Steam Locomotives, 1848-1930."

So there's not really any magic to it, but it may require a lot more thought than some want to put into it. There are no shortcuts to thoughtful content development.

[kikykuang]

I do not reject the use of H1, the optimization is indeed very useful, but I feel should be a reasonable, if the indiscriminate use would be considered cheating google

[frih]

I heard that adsene uses H1 tag to deliver more content based ads.

[samanime]

I agree with Stormrider that it is rubbish that you can't use more than one H1 per page.

I think of them as an outline. For example, if you wrote this for an English paper:

I. Topic 1
 1. Sub-point 1
 2. Sub-point 2
II. Topic 2
 1. Sub-point 1
 2. Sub-point 2

This would translate to:

<h1>Topic 1</h1>
<h2>Sub-point 1</h2>
<h2>Sub-point 2</h2>
<h1>Topic 2</h1>
<h2>Sub-point 1</h2>
<h2>Sub-point 2</h2>

[stonedeft]

Originally Posted by samanime

I agree with Stormrider that it is rubbish that you can't use more than one H1 per page.

I think of them as an outline. For example, if you wrote this for an English paper:

I. Topic 1
 1. Sub-point 1
 2. Sub-point 2
II. Topic 2
 1. Sub-point 1
 2. Sub-point 2

This would translate to:

<h1>Topic 1</h1>
<h2>Sub-point 1</h2>
<h2>Sub-point 2</h2>
<h1>Topic 2</h1>
<h2>Sub-point 1</h2>
<h2>Sub-point 2</h2>

Hello question will this hurt SEO, I mean I always use it only once and if I like a text to appear like H1 I always use classes. If this won't affect SEO then I should stop using classes

[Stormrider]

Originally Posted by stonedeft

Hello question will this hurt SEO, I mean I always use it only once and if I like a text to appear like H1 I always use classes. If this won't affect SEO then I should stop using classes

Why would using HTML correctly hurt SEO?

[r937]

Originally Posted by samanime

For example, if you wrote this for an English paper:

... sorry, no

it would correctly translate to:

<h1>title of paper</h1>
<h2>Topic 1</h2>
<h3>Sub-point 1</h3>
<h3>Sub-point 2</h3>
<h2>Topic 2</h2>
<h3>Sub-point 1</h3>
<h3>Sub-point 2</h3>

please do try to keep up

[Stormrider]

Originally Posted by r937

... sorry, no

it would correctly translate to:

<h1>title of paper</h1>
<h2>Topic 1</h2>
<h3>Sub-point 1</h3>
<h3>Sub-point 2</h3>
<h2>Topic 2</h2>
<h3>Sub-point 1</h3>
<h3>Sub-point 2</h3>

please do try to keep up

...or

<title>title of paper</title>
[...]
 <h1>Topic 1</h1>
<h2>Sub-point 1</h2>
<h2>Sub-point 2</h2>
<h1>Topic 2</h1>
<h2>Sub-point 1</h2>
<h2>Sub-point 2</h2>

[Stevie D]

Originally Posted by Stormrider

...or

<title>title of paper</title>
[...]
 <h1>Topic 1</h1>
<h2>Sub-point 1</h2>
<h2>Sub-point 2</h2>
<h1>Topic 2</h1>
<h2>Sub-point 1</h2>
<h2>Sub-point 2</h2>

The problem with that is that the <title> element isn't included in the page content, so there would be nothing at the top of the page to indicate what the title of the paper is.

[r937]

Originally Posted by Stevie D

The problem with that is that the <title> element isn't included in the page content, so there would be nothing at the top of the page to indicate what the title of the paper is.

nice one, steve

that was my point too, but then i realized that most (not all) "seo practitioners" don't really care what the page looks like...

many site designers dont bother to use H1 tags however they can be useful in SEO purposes

it would seem that there are two camps here: those of us designing and coding for visitors, and those designing and coding to game the search engines

if someone wanted to do both -- design for visitors and influence serps -- then of course the H1 would be used properly