Header Tags – What are they ? Where and How to Use Them Effectively
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Most of us already know that header tags H1, H2, H3….H6 are an important SEO element in on-page optimization. But how important ? Can we add more than one H1 header tag on a page ? How often should H1 tags be repeated ? Where on a page should it occur ? More questions than answers, right ? Let’s try and answer a few.
How important are headers compared to other on-site optimization factors ?
First off, take off your SEO hat please. Header tags, as webmasters know are used for highlighting important titles on a page. Its been like that for years now. They are more or less like the ‘subject line’ on an email. The gist of what the content is.
For the same reason headers have been used extensively, either manually added or included as they were a part of a CMS or the web design software.
So, if you look at them from a users perspective, headers are anything that appears in large font, as a short description or title of the content, to skim through. Which is pretty much okay, that’s the way we have seen headers on the web all these years.
But looking at it from the SEO perspective (put on your darn hat pls), headers are much more than just large fonts or titles. They are the crux of the content, they are SEO elements search engines take time to read through and understand (figuratively speaking).
So yes, considering the on site optimization factors, headers are important. (We’ll also see how not to abuse them later on.)
Are they just text appearing in large sized fonts ?
Apparently not, even though they could be. Well, technically header tags normally appear as large size fonts because most of the browsers treat them that way. So unless you’ve worked on it, headers appear in comparatively large font to the content, because that’s what you see visually.
To the search engines, they are just text appearing between the header tags. Be it H1 or H2. Search engines might treat them differently based on their value, but font size is only a visual thing.
Where should you place H1, H2 header tags in terms of SEO ?
This is an important question. Regardless of what their font size is, or what the value is, its about where the header tags are placed that matters most. Usually, H1 tags are used for the titles of articles, placed often at the beginning of an article. But less attention is given to the supporting headers H2, H3 and beyond which are either under-utilized or not used at all.
If you select a normal HTML page without SEO being done, you could see that there mostly would be an H2 and may be an H3. Only very few CMS’s use other header tags, or they have to be included manually.
From my experience I’ve seen that H1 tags are best placed at the beginning of the article. Preferably the first header tag to be crawled, they should explain what the content is all about. Obviously use of primary keywords are welcome here.
H2 and H3 tags too perform well if used within the content, contextually, if I can call it that way. That is within the main article, as a subheading or as a paragraph title, where the secondary keywords can go. It supports the main title or the H1 in all possible ways.
Many a times, CMS’s including WordPress places H2 and H3 tags on the sidebar headings and not on the content (which obviously has to be done manually). This in a way, takes away possible attention from the content. Using the other header tags (H2, H3 and beyond) within the content is much recommended.
How can you effectively use header tags ?
As I mentioned earlier, to search engines, header tags are nothing but a piece of text that appears within the H1 / H2..H6 tags. And we know that if you use them with the default values on any CMS, they appear as large fonts, the biggest being H1 and then growing smaller from there.
You can control this by using CSS styles. Suppose you have a subheading within the main content, somewhere towards the middle of it and your primary keyword is used there, you would want to use an H1 on it and grab all the attention. But if you use the normal formatting options, the main title , which might be somewhere on the top of the article is likely to get an H1. To fix this, you could use the H1 on the title lying within the middle of the content and use CSS styling to make it appear with a smaller font. This way, the visual appearance isn’t affected. The main title remains the biggest, and the subheadings appear as usual with smaller fonts.
A word of caution here. Don’t overdo it as it may look “manipulated”. Use it only when required and in a healthy way, where ever applicable.
So, what are your thoughts ? How well have you been using header tags ?
great, Thank you very much this will be very helpfull.
I didn’t believe that is possible to build a solid article around the header tag, but, aparentely, I was wrong.
. Nice work!
From what I know, including your targeted keyword within the header tags is considered by Google as spammy behaviour… and I too, appropriated this belief. What do you make of it?
Cheers,
Cristian
pordon me, the email is with “cristian” not “cristain”. Please delete after you read
Clearly said money. Useful for some newbie, non techie seo people
I should note a couple of practical implications of misusing header tags that demonstrate the care you need to using when messing with markup to impact SEO. Many web sites will not care about either of these issues, but some will:
1.If you put the H1 tag after the H2 (or H3,etc), your web site will not be ADA accessibility-compliant (though this is at least somewhat a moving target).
2. Certain lesser-used browsers (especially some mobile ones) may not display correctly.
as I said, these may not matter to many sites, but more and more places are seeking to be accessibility-compliant, a trend that seems likely to continue.
Wow…nice info
I didn’t know about that until know
Thanks for sharing
I like this blog, lots of useful information
Wonder why cant the CMS’s adopt these stuffs as defaults, cant you give them some tips? God no, what did I just say? In that case you would be jobless
Just kidding. I got this tip from you at BlogCamp Kerala. Used it religiously and found awesome results. Thank you, thank you
Hi Mani, Do you know how to put H1 and H2 in Blogger (Blogspot)?
Oh! I thought I have done a huge mistake on my blog, no Header tags except title tag. Do I need to change all them manually for better SEO result ??
Anyways killer article for me. Thanks.
Good one Mani !!..
Hi Mani,
I know how to put H1 and H2 in blog, there is plugin for that
but how to put H3..H6 ?? can you give some advice
thank you
Noticed how a header tag gave me a second place in the search rankings for a particular keyphrase
Great info thanks. -Qoptimize
Great post! Just before some days i was thinking about the uses of header tags and where it should have been placed to bring better SEO result…..But now your post made me clear.. Thanks for your nice post….
You need to be careful while using those bad boys. Ideally you shouldn’t use h1 tags often. Try to avoid it withing the content as you might end up in trouble.
Hi, I see that you said wordpress might put h2 as the sidebar headings by default, do you think that doing so will make the Header tags in the actual content being diminished in value?
Not if the content is shaped well so as to make the sidebar part take little focus. Most of the time, the main content area is under-used with not using additional support header tags to the H1.
Header tags are insanely useful for SEO, but title tags are a lot more important. Google ranks title tags a hell of a log more than any heading tags on the page, and it’s what SERPS display directly to users as well. Very nice article though, you make some great tips!
Good stuff.
Thanks, this is really helpful for me.
Before, i really don’t care about tags, header.
I thought it will be no use.
thanks this article
I use H1 through H3 appropriately within my content.
I did learn from this post that there is actually a SEO function to these tools beyond the obvious font emphasis. Thanks for that insight.
Also, realized the importance of including keywords in the headers.
Well done.