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.
Title Tag vs. H1 / H2
-
OK, Title tag, no problem, it's the SEO juice, appears on SERP, etc. Got it.
But I'm reading up on H1 and getting conflicting bits of information ...
- Only use H1 once?
- H1 is crucial for SERP
- Use H1s for subheads
- Google almost never looks past H2 for relevance
So say I've got a blog post with three sections ... do I use H1 three times (or does Google think you're playing them ...)
Or do I create a "big" H1 subhead and then use H2s? Or just use all H2s because H1s are scary?
I frequently use subheads, it would seem weird to me to have one a font size bigger than another, but of course I can adjust that in settings ...
Thoughts?
Lisa
-
Let me add that
- In many cases the title tag will also contain the website's name, as in
<title>Awesome Cool Headline | website name<title></li> <li>A good CMS will let you differentiate between headline in title and headline on the page (the H1)</li> <li>If your website is indexed by Google News the shown headline will be the H1, not the title tag</li> </ul></title>
- In many cases the title tag will also contain the website's name, as in
-
<title>Awesome Cool Headline<title></p> <p><H1>Awesome Cool Headline<H1></p> <p>This looks correct. Then use H2 for subheadings. The title won't get printed on the page so "Awesome Cool Headline" will only show once on the page content.</p></title>
-
OK, getting more information ... I think the issue here is this is for a blog and I'm thinking the Title tag usurps the H1.
For a blog, it would be:
<title>Awesome Cool Headline<title></p> <p><H1>Awesome Cool Headline<H1></p> <p>which would look redundant. So I think I could use the first subhead as an H1 if it was written in a way that was relevant to the story, but I'm guessing best practices are H2. Although if I did that, I'd NEVER have an H1 on my pages unless I was doing a landing page promotion of some sort ... hmmm.</p></title>
-
Ah, so ...
- Title (duh)
- H1 header (use as first subhead after lead graph to set the tone for the piece?)
- H2 for all other subheads
- Set H1 and H2 at the same font style so no one knows the difference.
Can someone give me a good example of an H1? I don't know why I'm a bit stuck on the H1 application, but a few in the wild examples should help. This is truly appreciated guys!
Thanks!
-
Like others have mentioned you should only have one H1. This should appear on the page before any other headings such as h2, h3 etc.
The styling shouldn't matter so the h1 doesn't need to be in a larger font size than the h2's.
-
Of the 4 points you mention you've seen, I'd say the only one that's entirely incorrect is #3.
1. Only use H1 once: True. Think of it like a book title. That's the most important thing, so nothing else should share that prominence.
2. H1 is crucial for SERP: **True. **This is what Google looks to, after your title tag, for information about your page and the content therein. This reaffirms that your metadata, keywords, title, content, etc. are all related - while also showing visitors what this page is about (Google values visitor experience more and more with each update).
3. Use H1s for subheads. False. Think back to #1 - H1 should be reserved only for the 1 absolute most important thing (which should be your title).
4. Google almost never looks past H2 for relevance. Kind of true. Google DOES look beyond this (and even parses your body-text), but with each lowering of prominence / heading, Google gives it less weight. #4 is true in the sense that this weight is lessened significantly, but it's incorrect generally - your content is still very important.
I hope this has been helpful to you! Good luck!
-
Just use H1 one time, matt cutts said in a video that he would like to see only 1 H1 tag on a page.
Create content for better user experience, use headings just for your readers, and don't follow these on page tactics very much. Now everyone knows these techniques, and I don't think Google gives higher weight to these things.
Create content for readers
Use H1 as your Page's Heading(Just one time)
Use H2 where you think it's essential
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
-
Create Page Titles from H1 using Yoast?
I'm working on a site that has 280 blog posts that have either been migrated from an old CMS site or created on the Dev version of the new WordPress site. We've written 280 unique meta descriptions so they don't truncate but it there a quick way I can export the current H1s and then import them into Yoast so they are set as the Page Titles? I've written unique Page Titles and meta descriptions for all the Service and Products page and just want a way to speed up the blog posts as their H1s are really good and what I would use as Page Titles anyway. Any help, greatly appreciated!
Technical SEO | | Marketing_Today0 -
Is alt text inside an img tag inside an h1 the same weight as text directly inside the h1?
Right now I use a background image and CSS to tie the h1 tag to my logo on each page. However, I am concerned that may not be best practice. Plus, I am interested in using schema markup on my logo. So, my question is, if I use an image with alt text inside my h1 tag, will the alt text carry as much weight as a text-based h1?
Technical SEO | | Avalara0 -
Page titles in browser not matching WP page title
I have an issue with a few page titles not matching the title I have In WordPress. I have 2 pages, blog & creative gallery, that show the homepage title, which is causing duplicate title errors. This has been going on for 5 weeks, so its not an a crawl issue. Any ideas what could cause this? To clarify, I have the page title set in WP, and I checked "Disable PSP title format on this page/post:"...but this page is still showing the homepage title. Is there an additional title setting for a page in WP?
Technical SEO | | Branden_S0 -
Div tags vs. Tables
Is there any reason NOT to code in tables (other than it being outdated) for SEO reasons?
Technical SEO | | EileenCleary0 -
Use of title tags on divs for SEO purposes
Hello community, I recently was asked by a client to analyze a website of a competitor. I did was he asked me to do but when I looked at the source code of the website I found this code: I changed the exact words into something for privacy reasons, but I never looked at a code like this.
Technical SEO | | JarnoNijzing
Using a div for an anchor I get but adding a title tag to the div? I never seen that before. Title tags on anchors, yes, using images in divs as background and then adding a title??? Does anyone have any experience with a code like this and if you do how does this impact rankings? Does it impact rankings at all and does anybody know of any correlation between the two? Looking forward for your responses. Regards Jarno0 -
Isnt it better to have headlines in H1 and H2 tags instead of p tags?
I am working with a simple site http://http://lightsigns.com/Uniko_Manufacturing_Limited.html They seek more SEO traffic. However, the two big headlines that read "Wholesale Supply to the Sign and Display Industries" which is on line 241 and 242 of the source code, its in a p tag, i.e. <p <span class="webkit-html-tag">style</p <span>="padding-top: 0pt; " class="paragraph_style_1">Wholesale Supply to the and <p <span class="webkit-html-tag">style</p <span>="padding-bottom: 0pt; " class="paragraph_style_1">Sign and Display Industries Likewise, the product titles are in p tags, also. For example, on the Slide-in Light Box product page, http://lightsigns.com/Slide_In_light_box.html , I have done keyword research and no one is using the words slide in light box.Plus, it is also a p tag, ie. line 43 reads style="padding-bottom: 0pt; padding-top: 0pt; " class="paragraph_style">Slide-in Light Box If I suggest that they make an H2 tag with SEO-optimized keywords such as Display Light Box - Slide-In LIght Box, would this indeed help SEO? In summary, is it correct to say that H1 and H2 tags are stronger signals to the search bots of what the page is about?
Technical SEO | | BridgetGibbons1 -
Genesis WP Theme H1 Tag not properly Used?
I am in the process of redesigning my website, and I have been working on the Genesis framework a lot lately, so I used the Genesis framework to make my new site. The URL is http://protechig.com As I look at the H1 on the page (homepage only, every other page has solid h1s from an SEO perspective.) The first thing that I see is that the home page H1 is a links (to protech's home page). The second thing that I see is the the title text is replaced with an image (my logo) and there is a text-indent:-99999; and overflow:hiden; I just want to know from an SEO perspective if this is okay, and, if it isn't, what I could/should to to rectify it. Thanks Zach
Technical SEO | | Zachary_Russell0 -
H1 Tag as Logo on the Homepage.
So I was working on a Genesis theme website where they have the H1 Tag as the Logo on the homepage. I wanted this changed because I always use my H1 tag to include a keyword I want to rank for. I was told by the Genesis Forum Manager that Yoast said the Logo should be the H1 tag on the homepage. (Yoast has a WP SEO Plugin that is very popular) That makes no sense to me, so I was looking for Opinions. Thanks,
Technical SEO | | netviper0