Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How to peroperly use h1 , h2 and h3 tag on your website.
-
Is it better to have different h1 for each page or have the same h1 across the site. I am using h1 fin wordpress for
beside that I have 4 more h1 in the same page
how to properly use h2 and h3 can we have muliple h2 on a page.
what would be an ideal hx tag order be ?
h1
h2
h2- h3 h3If anyone can provide some answers
Many thanks
-
The above answers are spot on. Have one H1 per page, and that H1 should be unique and reflect the main heading/title.
I just wanted to add this great article by Bill Slawski - he goes into really great depth about their best usage and importance: http://www.seobythesea.com/2012/01/heading-elements-and-the-folly-of-seo-expert-ranking-lists/
-
I always preach to use your heading tags like you would when writing an article in Microsoft Word, and use 1 H1 tag per page.
Main Subject Line that Includes Keyword or Mission
Words that explain the information you are trying to cover, and your "mission statement". Include higher amounts of keywords within first paragraph while not stuffing. Should also contain some sort of conversion statement or button
Secondary Information or Second Viewpoint
Words that include keywords and viewpoint.
Last Heading Includes Summary or Closing Arguments
Include high points of what has been covered
CMS sites often render out header tags like mad, causing you to have multiple H1 tags on a page. To check to see if yours is doing this, use SEO Browser. IMO, you can have more than one H2, as you may have multiple high level topics to cover on one page. Keep in mind, you can always use CSS to make
text render as a heading tag, so your page doesn't look goofy. For example:
If your h1 css looks like:
.h1 {
font-size: 28px;
line-height: 29px;
font-weight: bold;
}then set up a div class:
.largeptext {
font-size: 28px;
line-height: 29px;
font-weight: bold;
}and they will look the same, but not render an additional h1 tag per page. Use this for your sidebar and page styling areas that also render h tags.
-
Should only have 1 H1 per page... ideally containing the target keyword. If this were a blog post, your H1 would be your article title.
H2 would be used more for subheadings, i.e. if you split your article up into sections with subheadings, each should be an H2
H3-H6 are just sub-sub headings, etc.
Overall, I believe H1 (and perhaps to an even lesser extent H2) has any SEO value - even though it is very minute since it's easily gamed.
-
H1 should be the main heading and reflect the landing page. It should also be unique to the site (in most cases). H2's should be subheadings, H3's sub-sub headings and so on.
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 heading tag to use on sidebars and footers
Hello, I have some awareness of how to use H1, H2 and H3.
On-Page Optimization | | kowston
H1 only once per page as the main page heading.
H2's should be subheadings, H3's are sub-sub headings of the and so on.
This structure gives hierarchy and opportunities to use additional keywords in an order of priority. I can clearly understand how this would work in an article but what about other content on the page such as global/frequently repeated elements like sidebars and footers? I see sites - and in particular, I have examed SEO focused sites - that use H3, H4 and H5 in these instances seemingly giving themselves scope to use at least H2 tags as part of the page content and break out of the structure hierarchy when dealing with sidebars and footers. I suppose this could signal theses headings are sections of the page that are less relevant than the main article content but that is just an assumption. I don't know what is correct.0 -
XML Sitemaps for Property Website
Hi all, I was hoping that someone might have a link to a good example of an XML Sitemap for a large property (real estate) website? Thanks in advance to anyone who does! 🙂 Gavin
On-Page Optimization | | IcanAgency0 -
Difference in using dividers in TITLE TAG
Hi everyone, i know that dividers in title or even title tag doesnt have much of an impact on better rankings. I had great rankings for many keywords, not using dividers or using only one divider. However for better reading comprehension and usability, and also aesthetics i started to use the pipe as my main divider and other secondary dividers. I saw many pages drop in rankings vs other less competent and with less content pages. My format was as follows: Product Brand | Product description - Additional info or local info ie. Fiber Glass MBI | Insulation Batts for Home and Commercial use - Acoustic and Thermal Insulation I changed the format for a handful of pages, and saw immediate results on rankings and traffic on those pages. Product Brand with Product Description - Additional Info ie. Fiber Glass MBI Insulation Batts for Commercial use - Acoustic and Thermal Insulation. Does it sound like something i should implement page wide. I personally like the aesthetics of the pipe as it gives a cleaner look, but the better rankings on the changed pages with using only one divider makes me think. Does it sound familiar, or its just a coincidence, Regards,
On-Page Optimization | | JesusD0 -
Define H2,H3 and H4 for e-commerce sites
Hi Everybody, I was wondering what is the best way to define H2,H3 and H4 for e-commerce sites. For example, I randomly chose an e-commerce site http://www.designerleds.com/products/high-power/ What would you suggest for H2,H3 and H4? Thank you very much for your help!
On-Page Optimization | | pbess0 -
Hey guys! I was looking at adding the H1 tag lower on the page than the H2 tag because I want the top bit to be a call to action. Is this proper practice?
Hey guys! I was looking at adding the H1 tag lower on the page than the H2 tag because I want the top bit to be a call to action. Is this proper practice?
On-Page Optimization | | Web3Marketing870 -
Rel canonical tag back to the same page the tag is on?
Very simple, Why would a website (and I have seen tons doing this) link the rel canonical tag back to the same page the tag is on? Example: somepage.htm has a canonical tag linking to somepage.htm I thought the idea of this tag was to tell google if 2 pages are similar, this page is the original, and it's this page which should be indexed and the page with the tag on should pass all PR to the original. Maybe im wrong and someone can help me out to understand this.
On-Page Optimization | | activitysuper0 -
Website Speed Testing Tools
I have been experimenting with a number of plugins to speed up the loading of my wordpress site and find that website speed testing tools are all over the map when it comes to results. Even the same tool can produce vastly different results. Does anyone have experience with one that is both dependable and consistent?
On-Page Optimization | | casper4340 -
Is it ok to use the H1 tag for bullet points?
Our search results page doesn't have a typical H1 tag because adding a true header would take up space unnecessarily. Therefore, we've assigned the h1 tag to be the breadcrumb. As filters are applied, the breadcrumb grows to include these filters. This breadcrumb is coded as bullet points, even though they're not the typical style of bullet points. Here's a screenshot: http://screencast.com/t/AjGC9iAYR3 For example, the breadcrumb: Home >> NYC Social Media Classes >> Adult >> Manhattan is currently coded as: | |
On-Page Optimization | | mevseo
| | * class="first"><a <span="">href</a><a <span="">="</a>/">Home |
| | * <a <span="">href</a><a <span="">="</a>/nyc/classes/social-media/age-adults/neighborhood-manhattan" class="Selected">Search results |
| | |
| | |
| | id="cat_social-media" type="checkbox" checked onclick="setCategory('social-media')" /> |
| | # style="font-size: 12px; display: inline;">NYC Social Media Classes |
| | <label <span="">for</label>="cat_social-media"> |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | <nobr>id="age_adults" type="checkbox" checked onclick="setAge('adults')" /><label <span="">for</label>="age_adults">Adults</nobr> |
| | |
| | |
| | <nobr>id="nbhd_manhattan" type="checkbox" checked onclick="setNeighborhood('manhattan')" /><label <span="">for</label>="nbhd_manhattan">Manhattan</nobr> |
| | |
| | | Right now that H1 tag just relates to 'NYC Social media classes', but we'd like to expand it to include both 'Manhattan' & 'Adults' - would that be ok? And if so, would it be better to put the tag before and after the tag?0