H2s & H3s for Category Navigation

[kevinliao]

Hi all. I am wondering how best to format a category navigation menu. Currently I don't think we're using H2s correctly on our website.

Am I right to think that the top level category e.g. Games should be formatted as an H2 and the sub-categories underneath this should be formatted as H3s (to show a hierarchy)?

Is there a limit on how many H2s and H3s you should use? Obviously only one H1 per page.

Thanks in advance

Paul

[DarinPirkey]

There are mixed opinions on the use of them by Google.  I happen to think it's zero for all of them except H1 and I'm not convinced even of them..  There is a case for H1 tags and keywords in them but I've ranked pages without strong H1 tags too.

It will depend on the design of your site but typically header tags are bold and slightly larger than the standard text on your page.  You can check your websites files and change them around if you want to change the sizes.  Think about reading a text book.  It's nice to have the chapter titles one size, the sections another size and subsections another size.  It's for your users.  You want to make sure they can easily find what they want on your page.  When we code sites, we generally indent too.  That's not for Google, it's for us to find things faster.  Same concept.

[kevinliao]

By the way, I didn't realise that using a header tag actually changed the look of the text? I thought it was simply used in the back end to signify hierarchy to Google? So if we use H2-H6 we would be changing the look of the menu items as well?

[kevinliao]

Thank you for the advice.

[DarinPirkey]

Your first thought is correct.  You should use them to show hierarchy of content.

Directly from Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (page 20)

http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

"Heading tags (not to be confused with the HTML tag or HTTP
headers) are used to present structure on the page to users. There are
six sizes of heading tags, beginning with

, the most important, and

ending with

, the least important (1).

Since heading tags typically make text contained in them larger than
normal text on the page, this is a visual cue to users that this text
is important and could help them understand something about
the type of content underneath the heading text. Multiple heading
sizes used in order create a hierarchical structure for your content,
making it easier for users to navigate through your document."

There isn't a limit to any of the header tags as far as I know.  You are correct that most of us suggest that you only use one H1 tag.  I generally don't put a limit on a page of the number of H2, etc tags I use.  Remember, you are building your pages for your users and not for Google.  Use your header tags to help people navigate information on your page.