SEO HTML: Header tags
-
A few of quick SEO questions regarding header tags:
More than one
tag per page. If there is more than one
tag on a page: are both taken into consideration and what if they contain the same keyword? Eg on the page: http://en.emilea.be/childrens-clothes/molo/boys/cardigans-and-sweaters/
MoloBoysCardigans & sweaters
...
Molo childrens clothes
- Is the 2nd
considered when indexing the page?
- Since both
tags contain the same keyword (but in different context) is this a SEO plus or minus?
Nested tags inside header tags. I presume the nested tags are omitted, but if there is no white space between the tags are these concatenated?
<span tag='molo'>Molo<span tag='boys'>Boys<span tag='cardigans-and-sweaters'>Cardigans & sweaters</span tag='cardigans-and-sweaters'></span tag='boys'></span tag='molo'>
How is the above header processed?
- MoloBoysCardigans & sweaters
or
2) Molo Boys Cardigans & sweaters
Order of header tags.
How important is the order of header tags and how do they influence the following content. F.ex. if the top part of the page contains multipletags and the middle part contains 1-2
tags. Does this affect the importance of the
tags and would it be better to use
tags above?
Thanks in advance.
-
Hi Christian,
Did you get a chance to read this over?
If so, what do you think? Have any further questions?
Hopefully hear from you soon.
Thanks
SilverDoor
-
Hi Christian,
Firstly, The h1 tag is the most important tag. Every page must have one h1 tag.
Here's an example of how they can be used:
<``h1``>Main Heading
h1>
*
<h2
>Secondary Heading 1h2``>```*
<h3
>Sub-section of the secondary heading 1h3``>```*
<h2
>Secondary Heading 2h2``>```*
<h3
>Sub-section of the secondary heading 2`h3``>``````
``Advantages of Using Heading Tags:
The heading tag is used to represent different sections of web page content. It has an impact on both the SEO and usability of your site.
Header tags from an SEO point of view:
- **Relevancy: **Search engine spiders check the relevancy of the header tag with the content associated with it.
- **Keyword Consistency: **The search engine spiders check the keyword consistency between the header tags and other parts of the page.
- **The Importance of an h1 Tag: **The h1 is the most important tag and it should never be skipped on a page. Search spiders pay attention to the words used in the h1 tag as it should contain a basic description of the page content, just as the page <title>does .</li> <li><strong>Enriched User Experience: </strong>Heading tags give the user a clear idea of what the page content is about. Search engines give much importance to user-experience on a site, meaning the presence of heading tags becomes an important component of SEO.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Header tags from a usability point of view:</strong></p> <ul> <li>For users of the web who must use a screen reader, it is easier to navigate sections of content by referring to properly structured headings on a page.</li> <li>The h1 heading tag (main heading) of a page gives users a quick overview of the content that is to follow on the page.</li> <li>By reading the different heading tags, users can scan a page and read only the section they are interested in.</li> <li>The primary use of heading tags is for SEO, not to gain the larger, more prominent fonts; but the presentation of a web page does look cleaner with the presence of these tags.</li> </ul> <h4><strong>Things you should not be doing with heading tags:</strong></h4> <ul> <li>Do not stuff your heading tags with keywords.</li> <li>Do not use more than one h1 tag on a page unless really necessary. Usually pages will have a single h1 heading and including two might make search engines think this as an attempt to include more keywords for SEO in multiple h1 tags. It is better to divide the content into two separate topics on individual pages with their own h1 tags. This makes more sense to both readers and the search engine spiders, however, using multiple h1 tags is allowed (but strongly advised against)</li> <li>Do not use heading tags as hidden text. Any hidden text can result in penalties for your site, especially if the hidden part is a component that effects SEO.</li> <li>Do not repeat heading tags on different pages of your site. It is a good practice to have unique heading tags throughout your site.</li> <li>Do not use the same content in your page’s h1 tag as in your meta title tag.</li> <li>Do not use heading tags for styling text but use them for presenting organized and structured content on pages. Use CSS stylesheets for the purpose of styling.</li> </ul> <p>Follow all of the above and you should be fine.</p> <p>Hope this helps.</p> <p>Thanks,</p> <p>SilverDoor</p></title>``
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h tags validate the data on the page. So in essence each tag should elaborate on the first.
Example:
h1 Knitwear (keyword) for Children
h2: Jumpers and Cardigans (other important keywords)
having more h1s is not ideal, but is not that bad.
What you definately do not want is a tag missing, so for example H1 and H3 but no H2. Search engines will ignore the H3 as H2 is missing, so they must, if used, run in sequence.
Bruce
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Christian,
Don't get all caught up in the heading tags thing. Heading tags are as important for your organizing the content of the page as they are for the reader to understand the page organization and as they are for SEO. In fact, think first about how they help you organize the information on the page. "Concatenated", "white space", "nested"--they're not terms that you need to consider in relation to your headings.
The most important line goes at the top. If the most important stuff needs to be broken down into separate chunks, use H2s. If H2s need to be broken down into seperate chunks, use H3s. It's not any more difficult than that.
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