Heres a puzzle for you... Htags on left hand nav for ecomm category pages

[eLab_London]

Hi Guys,

So I am back asking more questions, but I am slowly learning

This next one, I have looked everywhere and I can't get my head around h tags on ecomm sites. I have looked at competitors and non competitors and still am not sure which is the right or wrong thing to do, specifically in this instance, category pages. Our I.T. dept is somewhat under resourced and I don't want to waste their time with test and trial on this particular issue.

Category landing pages...

There are shed loads of category listing pages on our site, at the moment the h1 tag for each sub-category is listed in the end path of the breadcrumb, there is no other spaces on the page accept the left hand navigation.

Which is the better to use, breadcrumb or nav?

We would have to totally recode our left hand nav which is pretty set up for the whole site. The reason I ask this question to you is because an SEO agency recommended that we...

• Add the H1 to the left hand navigation and make it customisable so that it is not the same as the breadcrumb keywords. I have attached an image of a competitor of ours that so the same thing currently, to show what I mean...

Right now I am not sure what to tell the agency and what the right thing to do is. I read a post saying that we are actually doing the right thing under the circumstances. Does anyone have a best practise good example of generally what we should do for category pages?

Your help is always muchly appreciated

Kindest,

Kay

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[Christy-Correll]

Hi Kay,

I saw the screenshot and yes, I would recommend making space in your page design so that you can have a unique H1 (main heading/the most important headline) properly created for each of your pages. The H1 not only helps the search engines figure out what a page is about, but how a page is structured as well. The same goes for screen readers. This is why it is still best practice to make the H1 the main headline of the page, vs. a navigational element (with one unique H1 per page).

While the importance of using a keyword-rich H1 has declined over the years as a page ranking factor, it still carries some weight. That said, when writing H1s (and title tags), it's always wise to consider what will be most helpful for the user. (And that is often if not always the same thing that is helpful for the search engines!)

I agree with Andy that on an ecommerce site, if the heading for the page is a product name/type (or contains the product name/type), then this usually makes a good H1. I also agree that you should place it in the main body of the of the page, not the navigation. (Usually the

tag is placed right after the opening tag.) I partly disagree with him that this shouldn't be a copy of a the title tag. I've found that using the same copy for the title and H1 tags (for the same corresponding page) is good for the user experience, and can reduce pogo sticking. So when the user clicks on a title in the SERPs through to a page with the same heading, it is obvious they found the right page. They clicked on the search result they thought looked good, and this page is obviously about the same thing... this is the page they want. Does that make sense?

If using the product name/type for the H1, though, will not give you a compelling title tag (or a super short one), I would recommend sticking with the product name/type for the H1, and incorporating the same copy into the title tag (i.e., adding on to it, which could be as simple as adding your brand name).

I hope this helps!

Christy

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Kay,

I did indeed see it.

The ideal solution is to have an H1 created for your pages that is unique, not a copy of the page Title tag and that does make up a heading. If the heading for the page is a product name / type, then make this the H1. I don't know just what something like the example you gave will do, as I would be suggesting to make it something on the main page itself.

-Andy

[eLab_London]

Thanks Andy,

We currently dont have any H1 space on these category pages. What do you think I should do based on your experience? Recommend to get an H1 actually created for these pages?
Did you see the image of the screenshot?

Cheers.

Kay

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Kay,

The idea of the H1 is more about the size of the font, rather than where it appears, so having an H1 as part of the crumb trail, isn't much use. Rand did a white-board Friday about this a few years back and the test showed there was little / no difference between an H1 and a larger font. Others will disagree with this viewpoint though.

That said, the H1 tag is still considered in any on-page SEO, so it is worth doing it right. It will help people recognise important headings and with that comes user benefits.

However, be careful how you do it. Think 'best practice' at all times and if you can come up with a solution where useful heading will appear in the left nav, then that is fine.

-Andy