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.
Is using a H1 tag in a logo image bad for SEO?
-
We have brand logos on certain pages that have H1 tags in them - the H1 text being the brand's name, as this is what we'd want the title of the page to be. The logos are at the top of the page instead of a written title. But is this the best option for SEO? Do search engines value H1 tags in images as highly as a standard H1 tag?Would it be better for SEO to add an alt tag to the logo and add a separate H1 tag on the page that's also the name of the brand?
-
@DVLighting While using an H1 tag in your logo might not hurt SEO, it also doesn't offer a big advantage. In fact, it can actually make things less user-friendly for people with screen readers and take away from the opportunity to clearly highlight your main page message with a separate H1 tag. So, unless your logo itself incorporates the main title text, sticking with a standard H1 tag is the way to go for both SEO clarity and user experience.
-
@DVLighting While using an H1 tag in your logo might not hurt SEO, it also doesn't offer a big advantage. In fact, it can actually make things less user-friendly for people with screen readers and take away from the opportunity to clearly highlight your main page message with a separate H1 tag. So, unless your logo itself incorporates the main title text, sticking with a standard H1 tag is the way to go for both SEO clarity and user experience.
-
When you're writing the alt text for an image, simply write the alt text to describe what the picture is. Some web designers just label the picture 01- example, yet, to improve your SEO, its good to say what is in the picture for example a man eating an apple and write the alt text, just like that, man eating apple.
-
I'm not worried it will hurt SEO. I just wondered if it will actually have any benefit and whether it would be more beneficial having the H1 tag not in the logo and as a standard H1 tag?
-
I'm pretty sure you with HTML5 you can have one
per container element. Therefore, while having the logo as the
isn't ideal, it won't hurt.
-
Don't think so much about this. Use brand name on logo as H1. and you have to be very sure, every page should be have only one h1 tag.
-
Hello Andreas,
Thank you for your answer. I don't think I explained myself very well in the question.
Yes, I meant that the H1 tag should be the brand name, not the title. We have over 60 pages where the topic of the page is a particular brand name that we are stockists of.
At the top of each of those pages is the brand's particular logo which acts as a visual heading for those pages. Our web developer put the H1 tag as the alt attribute for the logo image. But I am unsure as to whether this is good for SEO - to link a H1 tag to the image.
-
This is a thing wich is pretty much normal for a lot of CMS-Templates. It is not best practice, each SEO-Tool will tell you to use only one h1 wich is unique. Don't have equal H1-Tags everywhere. Thats the best practice.
According to John Mueller and my experience, Google is not stupid. It is possible to have more than one H1-Tag. Now it depends on how much factors you are serving well. You and your competitors. These H1 alone is not such a big factor. It is working if you have a second headline with the main-topic of your website. A lot more stuff is relevant. If it is not easy possible to change it, you can deal with it and care about other factors. Special if they are in different sections.
If it is possible, I would allways follow best-practices (specially for smaller or newer domains/companies). One thing sounds wrong "he H1 text being the brand's name, as this is what we'd want the title of the page to be" - I mean, the title (bet you ment the h1) should be what the page is about. Without alt-attribute you current H1 is a simple image, wich means it is empty.
You ask what is working better - Better is to have an H1 unique on every page. Dont use Headings as style Elements and yes, give an alt-attribute for your logo. Thats defenetly a better way, but it is not impossible to do like you did. Like I said, I am pretty long in this business, thatswhy Logos, Sidebar- & Footerheadlines, all style Elements are not SEO-Elelements when I create Webpages. But yes - I also work for websites without changing h1-logos and h3 menu-items (cms-reasons). And it is possible to rank in hard topics. Favorite answer - it depends.
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
-
H1 text and Header Image Overlap?
I have images with text at the top of every page on my site. But no H1 or H tags at all. I would like the text on the image to be my H1 text. But I don't want to be repetitive. What should I do?
On-Page Optimization | | Calligraphy0 -
Thoughts on adding "near me" to title tag for local SEO?
I want to lean out my title tags and will most likely be doing an A/B test. They currently have the "Near Me" modifier in there, which I believe Google can distinguish local SEO without it. Thoughts?
On-Page Optimization | | imjonny1230 -
Commas in title tags
Hello Guys, Thanks in advance for all who can help me with this I am helping a dinnerware company with their SEO. I told them to change their ambiguous title tags for more specific ones. However, they opted to create some title tags with 2 or three keywords separated by commas. I have attached an excel image illustrating their new title tags.. My question is, will this format be a problem with Google--penalties? The questionable title tags are highlighted in light orange. Thanks! lHH92
On-Page Optimization | | HectorCortes0 -
Duplicate content with tagging and categories
Hello, Moz is showing that a site has duplicate content - which appears to be because of tags and categories. It is a relatively new site, with only a few blog publications so far. This means that the same articles are displayed under a number of different tags and categories... Is this something I should worry about, or just wait until I have more content? The 'tag' and 'category' pages are not really pages I would expect or aim for anyone to find in google results anyway. Would be glad to here any advice / opinions on this Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | wearehappymedia1 -
URL Path. What is better for SEO
Hello Moz people, Is it better for SEO to have a URL path like this: flowersite.com/anniversary_flowers/dozen_roses OR flowersite.com/dozen_roses Is it better to have the full trail of pages in the URL?
On-Page Optimization | | CKerr0 -
Colons in title tag?
Does Google view the colon as a keyword separator like it does with the pipe (|) character? Currently, our site automatically constructs the title tag based on the page name given by the user. Long ago, we started using the colon character to visually separate the brand & model of the product from the size, and as a result, all of our title tags have been constructed this way. This was done more to make it easier to read for humans than for search engines. My question is - should I consider getting rid of the colon from our title tags? To give more info, our website sells tires. So, for any given model of tire, there might be 25-100 different individual sizes. The tags are constructed as follows: (brand)(model) : (size). Here's an example from our site: GENERAL ALTIMAX ARCTIC : 225/45R17 91Q The brand is General Tire, the model is the Altimax Arctic and the size is 225/45R17 91Q Since this entire string really constitutes the full product name, should I remove the colon so that Google views it that way? Or, since I have used a colon instead of a pipe, will Google simply ignore it and treat the entire string as one keyword phrase?
On-Page Optimization | | kcourtem0 -
Page Title in Local SEO Title Tags?
Hi All, Still working on my title tag usage for local SEO, and I was hoping for some more feedback. My question is this: In Local SEO titles, I'm using location + keyword combinations, unique on each page. However, since each page has a specific title for the client, I figure I should be placing that at the front. My thought here was that this helps with the overall usability to the reader of the website. Ex. Contact Us page for Pizza shop Contact Us | Springfield IN Gourmet Pizza | Moe's Italian Pizza Anyone have thoughts on this one? Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | kbaltzell0 -
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: | |
On-Page Optimization | | mevseo
| | * 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?0