Do pages with fewer headings rank higher?
-
I've found several good quality, high ranking pages with excellent content, 500 to 1000 words. These pages are made by people who obviously know what they're doing.
These pages only have one headline the h1 at the top of the page.
Some of the sites use CSS div boxes and other things to make text look like a heading but do not have h2 or h3 tags or bigger font size.
Could it be that a single headline tells Google that this page is about a single topic and that several sub headings muddy the water and so reduce page rank.
Do multiple headings or subheadings affect page rank or is it just a personal style choice?
-
Hello Tommy
This is the type of site I'm talking about. It's full of good content, ranks highly and looks professional.http://www.seomark.co.uk/how-many-backlinks/
But the pages that have what look like subheadings are just CSS classes. Many of the pages don't have any sub headings at all.
The person who made the site obviously knows what he's doing, I wondered if he knew something I don't.
-
Hi Philip,
It is strange that top rate SEO consultants are doing so. In the video that I've attached, Matt Cutts also mentioned that some people use ALL H1 headers and used CSS to make it look like it is not and got a lot of compliants. I believe Google is able to catch that so thats why I'm saying it is strange for top rate SEO consultants are doing that.
-
Thanks Tommy, Kevin and Mike.
Everything you say is just how I've been taught and sites like SEOmoz and Wordtracker agree with this approach. Just as importantly, user experience and common sense say that proper use of subheadings is the right way to do things.
What I'm not sure about is why some top rate SEO consultants don’t use subheadings at all. Sometimes they've gone to the trouble of making it obvious (using CSS) that some lines are headlines but don't use h2 tags etc.
I was wondering if there were any benefits in doing this.
-
I don't think that its fewer heading tags making the page rank better, I think that the pages are probably good enough that it doesn't matter there are no subheadings. From my understanding, breaking an article or blog post or page into subheadings and sub-categories by using the various header tags will help with ease of readability. Sometimes people scan the whole page prior to reading (or leaving) and want to see if there's anything to catch their interest. Having a pertinent h2, h3 or h4 could possibly get those people to stop and read a bit when they may otherwise have just left from impatience. I think too many header tags can be a bad thing though. If your page has gotten to the point where you have one h1, four h2s, 10 h3s, 27 h4s, 17 h5s.... then you may be doing it wrong.
-
Hi Philip,
Having multiple H1 header doesn't affect page rank. It is ok to have multiple H1 header for each section. However, don't over do it. Don't use H1 for the whole page because Google will see that and will take that into consideration in the algorithm. The attached video from Google Webmaster's Youtube page explains that.
Hpoe this helps Phil.
-
I think good organization (with subheadings) that increases the user experience actually helps rankings as it will encourage inbound links and time-on-site.
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
-
Rankings have dropped but why?
Recently our keywords have plummeted with regards to anything hen related on our stag and hen website. We were on the first page ranking 6<sup>th</sup> for terms such as Newcastle hen and hen weekend Newcastle. Now were around 15th this has also began to happen with other keywords. Content wise our pages score 90+ on page optimisation, we do have various keywords on the pages alike our competitors and use the highest searched for term as our page title. Our page speed is good on mobile and desktop. I’m struggling to see why we can’t seem to crawl back up to the first page when people who are outranking us have minimal content on slow sites. I know we lack back links but this can't be the only reason? Our website is hangoverweekends.co.uk
On-Page Optimization | | andy_simpson0 -
Content for the Home Page
Hi All, I have a Videos website which contains Videos of all types + Family safe type... The home page has sections and Videos listed. Now for SEO purpose i need to have content? this is what i read in most places. What is the kind of content i can place on a Videos website Home page? I can write about a Movie or actor but that content on Home page would that be of any use? We have a About us page etc to know who we are.. Any ideas please..
On-Page Optimization | | Nettv0 -
Duplicate pages
Hi I have recently signed up to Moz Pro and the first crawl report on my wordpress site has brought up some duplicate content issues. I don't know what to do with this data! The original page : http://www.dwliverpoolphotography.co.uk/blog/ and the duplicate content page : http://www.dwliverpoolphotography.co.uk/author/david/ If anyone can point me to a resource or explain what I need to do thanks! David.
On-Page Optimization | | WallerD0 -
Duplicate Page Content
Hi there, We keep getting duplicate page content issues. However, its not actually the same page.
On-Page Optimization | | HamiltonIsland
E.G - There might be 5 pages in say a Media Release section of the website. And each URL says page 1, 2 etc etc. However, its still coming up as duplicate. How can this be fixed so Moz knows its actually different content?0 -
Local on-page SEO
If it feels like you are doing something wrong, then you 'probably' are... Local on-page SEO When optimising a page for local SEO, and trying tick all the usuals boxes, you find yourself adding words like 'golf clubs leeds' which sounds awful when part of a natural paragraph of text. Does Google recognise this poor use of grammar? We try to be as creative as possible, as not to offend the visitor, but it feels wrong... any advice? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | indicoll0 -
Dynamic pages on a static html pages websiite
Good evening everybody. I am new on SeoMoz that I find very helpful in my work. I am not a web developer so please excuse me if my technical language is poor.I have an issue that maybe you can help me to solve. I work for a company who has a website, which is old and very well positioned on google for the most important keywords for the field of the company I work for (dentistry). It is a website made some years ago and it's made of static html pages.I would like to add a section in my website where I can post articles, like a blog (I think of a wordpress-style website) with daily posts (so with a dynamic page). Is there a way to do this without modifying the structure of the website and without losing pages, urls and ranking? We're on the first google page for many keywords of interests in our city and it would be a great damage for us to lose those positions.Thank you very much!
On-Page Optimization | | adec0 -
Duplicate page
Just getting started and had a question regarding one of the reports. It is telling me that I have duplicate pages but I'm not sure how to resolve that.
On-Page Optimization | | KeylimeSocial0 -
Why has only one page been crawled?
I went over the list of possible reasons, but I don't think any of them apply to the site in question: sarahhueniken.com. Any other reasons only one page would be crawled?
On-Page Optimization | | scottsemple0