H1 tag mandatory?
-
Hi there! Is a mandatory to fullfill the H1 tag in order to improve SEO? I mean I'm in the case where the keyword selected is appropiate to optimize the page but not appropiate to be in H1 tag 'cause it probably "doesn't sound good" to the user. Is it enought to be present in the url, title and description?Any suggestion?
Thanks in advanced.
-
Hi Jesse,
Now your talking! I'd say I agree with you know on this - it may not have much value in terms of aiding a sites rank, but then again it may have some slight advantage in terms of rankings - as long as its played by the book, is relevant, not stuffed and is in line with all the other on-page 'best practices'.
It certainly wont hurt.
-
That is simply untrue, though. In the quote you provided the SEOmoz stance even says "it does appear to provide some slight value." Yet you then said it does not add value... This post is contradictory at best.
Now what IS debatable is HOW relevant the H1 tag is and exactly how powerful it is in terms of optimization. What I know for certain is that it won't hurt to include your target keywords in your H1 tag and this can be done anywhere on your page, not necessarily at the very top in a title format.
Now of course this doesn't mean overusing the tag by any means. Never would I suggest such a thing. I use one H1 tag per page, period. No exceptions. But I always make sure my primary targeted keyword sits in that tag.
While it may not be the most powerful optimization technique, it is a piece of the puzzle and the SEO world is made up of a billion tiny edits that build one giant glorious page-1-search-ranking.
Voila.
-
Here is SEOMOZ's outlook on the h1 tag:
"Appropriate Keyword Usage in H1 Tag
<dl>
<dt>Explanation</dt>
<dd>Although employing targeted keywords in the H1 tag does not correlate well to high rankings, it does appear to provide some slight value. It's also considered a best practice for accessibility and to describe a page's content, hence our recommendation.
However, keyword stuffing may be perceived negatively by the search engines and can impact rankings. Thus, we suggest keeping keyword usage in the H1 to 2 or fewer uses."</dd><dd>Also the question was "H1 tag in order to improve SEO?", He is asking if it gives higher rankings. My answer, no. BUT it can help convert higher. It's like the meta description. It has zero ranking effect, but it can help convert. </dd>
</dl>
-
In a world where on-page optimization is more and more deminished it's hard to say exactly how much weight an html tag carries. Perhaps my "lot of weight" statement was a bit overboard, but it definitely is worth using and not just as a way of "letting the user know they've arrived." Because that is ridiculous. The user doesn't know what's tagged with an H1 and what's not. Again, formatting is all up to you and your CSS. I can have an H8 tag let the user know where they are, or just a straight up font tag. It's all in the styling.
H1 tags do register importance, just as bolded or alt text do. My suggestion of how you could technically bury it in a sentence was just to illustrate the point that you don't have to have some giant bold text at the top of your page to utilize the H1 tag. It can be stylized however you want. This is all I was trying to say and is certainly not a spammy suggestion.
-
Although I agree with the bulk of what you mention, and indeed it would seem there are some spam notes in the post, I would not go as far as to say 'it gives no ranking benefit'.
I say this as a few sites i've amended the h1 on, have seen very slight improvements, not this could also be down to the fact i'd also looked at the content on those sites at the same time, however, I would not discount the fact the h1 'might' of helped in some small way.
I also point to a video, a couple of years old I know, by Matt - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgy3Oc9zfOw
Who suggests they may still help, again, the video may be outdated - but perhaps worth noting.
The jury is out on whether they add much benefit, however, I would not discount them altogether and categorically state they have no benefit. Based on the tests I've run, and a number of others have run, such as http://cbutterworth.com/do-h1-tags-still-help-seo/, then i'd say it could still help, even in a small way.
The more things you do correctly, the better?
-
H1 tags do NOT carry a lot of weight for SEO. It gives no ranking benefit. Also, this sounds like a spam tactic:
"...drop an H1 tag into the middle of a sentence and the user would be none the wiser... just a hint."
Use H1 on for the user experience. I use H1s to make a clear indication to the visitor that they reached the right page.
-
If the keyword "doesn't sound good to the user" then why would they type said keyword into Google?
That's my first question. To answer your question H1 tags are definitely important and carry a lot of weight for on-page optimization. Do you realize you can format your H1 tag using CSS or HTML to look however you want? You could, by all rights, drop an H1 tag into the middle of a sentence and the user would be none the wiser... just a hint.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
What is the best meta description for Category Pages, Tag Pages and Main Article?
Hi, I want to index all my categories and tags. But I fear about duplicating the meta description. for example: I have a tag name "Learn Stock Market", a category name "Learning", and a main article "What is Stock Market". What is your suggestion for meta description of these three pages that looks great for seo google?
On-Page Optimization | | mbmozmb0 -
Can I reuse meta description tag on another site?
Hi....lets say i sell widgets and on my site i have redWidgets, blueWidgets and greenWidgets. Each of these widget page's has a meta description tag that seems to help click through. I now have a different site that would like to do a right up about each widget and will dedicate a independent page to each widget. Can i safely provide them with the original meta descriptions (from my original site) for each widget i have on my site to then use on these "right up" pages (as they seem to work well and are informative of the subject matter). I am not sure if this is a seo issue or not. I would think not but would appreciate any input. thank you
On-Page Optimization | | nomad-2023230 -
Can you use the canonical tag and rel=next and rel=prev on category pages.
We have a conflict of information between our web developers and our SEO company. We are an on-line retail company hence we have a fair number of different categories. Our site is set up with the rel=next and rel=prev tags. Our SEO company have asked us to implement canonical links on our category pages and leave the rel=next and rel=prev tags as they are. Our web developers are saying by doing this we are asking Google to ignore all of our products on all of the pages except page 1 which would mean Google would not index a lot of our products. I have looked at a few articles but I am struggling to understand which way to go. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | Palmbourne0 -
Should i make all of my pages with canonical tag
Hi, Im using thesis Wordpress theme, and their default option is "Add canonical <acronym title="Uniform Resource Locator">URL</acronym>s to your site" im just wandering if i should keep that box checked and apply canonical <acronym title="Uniform Resource Locator">URL</acronym>s to all of my pages? Thank You
On-Page Optimization | | Vmezoz0 -
Title Tag
Is there any value in adding semantically similar words in the title tag? For instance, I have an alcohol rehab website www.alcohol-rehab.ltd.uk, I offer local search pages too. Would the title tag "Alcohol Rehab Bedfordshire | Alcoholic Rehabilitation Clinics Beds" Be more valuable than "Alcohol Rehab Clinics Bedfordshire | www.alcohol-rehab.ltd.uk" And is is worth while having the url in each title tag? Also is it worth while (seo wise) writing a description tag for each page, other than for a call to action that is?
On-Page Optimization | | Tiedoctor0 -
It looks like there are several title tags on my homepage. This was done presumably to embed titles for pop up windows. This is causing an error report in DMOZ. Do the engines also veiw this negatively?
My homepage has a normal title tag, but when I look in the code I find the developer also added title tags for pop ups within the homepage code. Is this causing an issue with the search engines?
On-Page Optimization | | Furious-D0 -
Does a phone number in the title tag hurt your rankings in SERP?
Hi Mozzers, One of my client is a carpet cleaner and I was wondering if adding a phone number into the title tags would hurt our rankings . I am asking because the client has mentioned it and that we do have some space to add a phone number into the tag. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Alt image tags not being read by on-page optimization tool
Can bots see the keyword among other words in aIt image tags? For example, if the keyword is upholstery leather and the image tag says "our upholstery leather collection" will the keyword be recognized? Another example is buy leather. I have a image tag on a slide that reads "free samples before you buy leather" but an on-page analysis in moz does not show an alt tag title for buy leather? Same problem with an moz on-page analysis of the term upholstery leather. Thanks! Hunter
On-Page Optimization | | leatherhidestore0