Using H1 Headings - More than 1?
-
I've known about avoiding the use of more than 1 H1 Heading Tags, however, with HTML5 is this going to change... at least that's how I understand it.
According to HTML5 Specs, Each 'section' can have an H1 heading, which at least theoretically means certain web pages that have multiple "sectioning elements" can have more than 1 H1 heading... true? False?
What I'm looking for here is some insight into the ramifications HTML5 will have on the use of H1 tags.
And would like to know how search engines currently handle this and are they anticipated to change as the HTML5 outline algorithm becomes widely supported?
thanks in advance
Kelly
-
Thanks for the answer, I do appreciate the time you took .
-
Great question. Yes, HTML5 allows for, and in some ways even encourages use of multiple H1 tags for certain types content, but.....
It's really not a big deal. Right now, there's very little correlation data that shows much of a difference in rankings between pages that use the h1, don't use it at all, or use it multiple time. In the old days, this was a bigger deal, but not so much.
(interestingly, there seems to be a slight correlation with the number of H4 tags, although this probably is only an indication of well-structured content.)
If there is any effect, the H1 tag in HTML5 may help webmasters better organize their content, and may provide better semantic structuring that the search engines are able to use and interpret.
Hopefully it's a good thing.
-
Because it is not out and nobody is the search engine the best you can get is speculation. If you want opinion, here is mine. You can put multiple H1 tags into your code now, even if it is not good optimization, so I don't see why you would not be able to do so in all future versions. The reality is search engines only give minor weight to the first H1 tag on the page and don't even really look at your h2 h3 h4 ect tags. If they ever allowed multiple h1 tags, I'm sure the search engines would either put even less importance on the h tag, if any at all, or would do what it is doing now and look at the first one and disregard all others. The main use of h tags is to create good readable content not to optimize for seo.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Using WebP Image Alongside Existing Images
Is it worthwhile to add in WebP images alongside existing images? WebP Images can be three times smaller than PNGs and 25% smaller than JPGs, according to a plugin option I am looking at. The alternative WebP images are provided via CDN. Does anyone have any experience with this, and is it worth doing?
Web Design | | GrouchyKids0 -
Multiple sites using same text - how to avoid Google duplicate content penalty?
Hi Mozers, my client located in Colorado is opening a similar (but not identical) clinic in California. Will Google penalize the new California site if we use text from our website that features his Colorado office? He runs the clinic in CO and will be a partner of the clinic in CA, so the CA clinic has his "permission" to use his original text. Eventually he hopes to go national, with multiple sites utilizing essentially the same text. Will Google penalize the new CA site for plagiarism and/or duplicate content? Or is there a way to tell Google, "hey Google, this new clinic is not ripping off my text"?
Web Design | | CalamityJane770 -
Missing trailing slash in URL on subpages resulting in Moz PA of 1
Even here in moz community I am noticing it. Is it really a factor to have an ending slash on the page? Does it make a difference? Our website has a homepage PA of 63, DA of 56 but all of our sub-pages are just 1 and they have been up for 4 months.
Web Design | | serverleap1 -
Should i not use hyphens in web page titles? Google Penalty for hyphens?
all the page titles in my site have hyphens between the words like this: http://texas.com/texas-plumbers.html I have seen tests where hyphenated domain names ranked lower than non hyphenated domain names. Does this mean my pages are being penalized for hyphens or is this only in the domain that it is penalized? If I create new pages should I not use hyphens in the page titles when there are two or more words in the title? If I changed all my page titles to eliminate the hyphens, I would lose all my rankings correct? My site is 12 years old and if I changed all these titles I'm guessing that each page would be thrown in the google sandbox for several months, is this true? Thanks mozzers!
Web Design | | Ron100 -
What does they use?
Hey guys, I was reading Brian's Guide to backlinking and other Quicksprout guide and I asked myself how do they use for create that pages. They are using wordpress, but what tools do they use for creating that landing pages? Optimizepress plugin? Other template builder plugin? Thank u very much.
Web Design | | Italianseolover0 -
Using H1 in a carousel
Hi, I have a homepage with a carousel rotator that has text in it. My question is what's the best practice in using H1 tags within the carousel. Will placing H1 tags in each be considered excessive H1 use and if so can this still cause SEO problems? Thank you
Web Design | | mirel0 -
Head Section
What are the most important things that should be found in the Head Section of a Website? Is there difference of what should be in the head section for a local site and a national or international site?
Web Design | | bronxpad0 -
Using Wordpress as CMS for large Websites
Is Wordpress good enough to be used as a full fledge CMS for a large website. In particular, I'm talking about a news website. We have been online since 2002 but pretty soon we will have digitized our print newspaper archives of about 60 years. So, my question is, is it OK to use Wordpress for the entire website and if so what are some of the important things that need to be kept in mind. Cheers!
Web Design | | RishadShaikh590