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:
| |
| | * 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?
-
Thanks Mat for your reply. Why do you think the markup is horrible?
-
I doubt it would harm you, but it is a bit unorthodox. Why not make the table header a header tag?
I'd argue with the "take up space unnecessarily" point a little. Headers aren't just for SEO (their SEO impact is probably pretty small these days) - they're for visitors. If these pages get direct visits (including from search), a prominent header can really help people know their on the right path. Breadcrumbs are great for people who are already on your site and have a sense of it, but they're too small and complex for that 5-second test of "Am I in the right place?"
-
Ick - horrible markup.
If you are choosing the HTML element based on spacing then you probably need to look at your CSS. I've never seen an H tag used in this way before, it is certainly an original approach. I don't think it'll kill you, but I'd avoid it if you can.
I would say that a bullet list is a more correct element for those breadcrumbs. I suspect that the thought process is along the lines of making them H1 will lend greater weight to them. It won't really work in that manner so you will probably be better served with code that is more "correct".
-
You should keep the H1 tag to only one per page and make the other headings H2.
Change the sizing of the H1 bullet to slightly bigger than the rest of the text on the page.
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
-
Tag Clouds in Google Despite Canonical Links for Single Tags/Articles
I am frustrated to see a lot tag clouds in Google even though I programmed my tagged pages to display a canonical link to the linking article if the is only one result for the tag cloud. The goal to to make sure that the article, which is of better quality than the tag page, ends up in Google without a bunch of thin tag pages getting in there. For instance this article should be in Google and this tag should not be because that tag has a canonical URL for that article. I do not have a lot of experience with tag cloud SEO because I prefer to limit such pages to categories, but I have found tag clouds to be important for aggregating information for specific issues, people, or places that are not already a site category. Some tags I have used to power social media pages that update automatically from RSS feeds for their related tag archives. That is quite useful for pages like that. Should I start using Meta noindex for those instead of rel canonical? I have already done that for author profiles because author profiles get a lot of on site links compared to individual articles because my gridviews use javascript for paging. The same is true for the tags, so if a tag is tagged in 30 articles it will have links from 30 articles but if those articles are not in the latest 20 for that tag only the latest 20 will have links back from the tag archive. I also suspect having a lot of tag pages with little content to negatively impact my indexing rate. I will see a number of recent tag pages added before new articles.
On-Page Optimization | | CopBlaster.com0 -
Is Bing also ignoring meta Keywords tags?
Hi, I originally asked about pros (or lack of them) when it comes to using meta keywords tags here https://moz.com/community/q/importance-or-lack-of-meta-keywords-tags-and-tags-in-drupal. It was most likely related to Google, I guess. Is that the same if it comes to Bing as few sources are not sure how this SERP consider using meta keywords tags and people only speculating. Anyone has any kind of "confirmed" responses or experience? Thank you in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | Optimal_Strategies0 -
Can i use hard innerlinks on my blog to my landingspages ?
Hello, Ihave a website and also on the same domain a blog with a lot of posts. Is it possible in each blogpost put 2 innerlinks 1. innerlink to other blogpost with keyword or combination 2. hard link like "Design Sauna" and link to the landingspage of the webshop ? Is this the right way ? thanks 🙂 Regards, Marcel
On-Page Optimization | | Bossie720 -
Titling and H1 Tag Question
What to do if you have hundreds of thousands of a particular product. Comic Books for example. Is it ok to have the words Comic Book in the title and H1 tag as long as it is qualified? For example, if I have the following as both the Title tag and the H1 tag. Comic Book - Spider Man Versus Wolverine Comic Book - Silver Surfer Goes Home to Visit Mom. Comic Book - Superman Gets a New Kitten Comic Book - Wonder Woman is More Wonderful Than You Know As of now, I have been doing it this way, but only in the title tag. However, Google has been using my H1 tag as my title, so in the search results, I am only getting: "Superman Gets a New Kitten" And I am afraid that that is leaving out important info for searchers, especially qualifying that the product is a Comic Book and if someone is searching for a Comic Book, I need that to return. But I don't want any 'more' trouble from the Panda. Again, this will be hundreds of thousands of products. Thanks for your help! Craig
On-Page Optimization | | TheCraig0 -
Blank Title and Description Tags
Hi guys. Some times web platforms that I do work on have pages that I normally do not optimize. They more often than not have blank meta titles and meta descriptions. If I put titles and descriptions on these pages, no matter how minor, would it help the site as a whole to rank better? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | oomdomarketing0 -
Noindex, nofollow tags
Hi, I have changed my tags to noindex,nofollow with Yoast. But still, seomoz software showing me warnings and errors for those pages. Also did the same for archive pages example.com/page-2/ and facing the same problems. I need to clear as much errors as I can in the software so I can see the real remaining errors in the website. Help will be highly appreciated. Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | Xasir0 -
Site Wide Title Tag Discussion
Do you think it's good to have an instance of your primary keyword occur on most of your site's title tags throughout your site? Or do you think having the keyword occur in most title tags throughout the site will dilute the ranking ability for the home page? I haven't read much about this in "best practices" for title tags. hmmmm...
On-Page Optimization | | Joes_Ideas0 -
Can I use the first sentence of my page content as a meta description tag as well?
I just want to copy my content on the page and use the first or as well the second sentence of the content self for my meta description tag. Is that OK? Or should the Meta description tag be different?
On-Page Optimization | | paulinap19830