H1 tags in blog post pages.

[2stroke]

I noticed that depending on what wordpress theme you are using, some will give you multiple H1 tags on a blog post page and some don't.

It is my understanding that Google looks at:
1. Title
2. Description
3. H1 tag
In that order.
(Googles SEO tips also suggests using meta tags but that's a whole different discussion)

I was reading something that said you should never have more than one set of H1 tags on a page. Some themes put every separate blog post title in H1 tags so when you look at the page source there are multiple sets of H1 tags on the same page.

Anyone have any information on thoughts on this?

[Abledragon]

All the search engines look at Title, H tags and content to understand what a page is about. They only sometimes use the description you provide. If they believe that a snippet of text from the article more closely relates to the search then they will use that - so you have limited control over the description that's presented to searchers.

While it is true that 1 H1 tag per article is correct, H2 and H3 tags are also important - don't ignore them. Effective use of H2's and H3's is helpful for humans - and, therefore, for the search engines.

As long as your single posts or pages only have one H1 tag you're OK. The titles of your articles on blog or archives pages (which list the most recent posts) should be H2's - and a good theme will ensure this is the case.

Cheers,

Martin.

[TBInternetMarketing]

I must say I have used multiple H1 tags before and still ranked with them, but I do also always try to include H2 and H3 tags as well.

[ocvseo]

Originally Posted by 2stroke

I noticed that depending on what wordpress theme you are using, some will give you multiple H1 tags on a blog post page and some don't.

It is my understanding that Google looks at:
1. Title
2. Description
3. H1 tag
In that order.
(Googles SEO tips also suggests using meta tags but that's a whole different discussion)

I was reading something that said you should never have more than one set of H1 tags on a page. Some themes put every separate blog post title in H1 tags so when you look at the page source there are multiple sets of H1 tags on the same page.

Anyone have any information on thoughts on this?

The Secret is the Global CSS try to edit it, and also the post.php and singlepost.php found on the theme folder will do the trick.

[aryangarg]

better to use h2 tags for keyword.. H1 tags don't have too much priority now because many spammers using this technique. and Search engines know about it.

[Stuart william]

what do you mean by multiple use of h1 tag, according to me its not better option to use multiple time h1 and other tag.

[seabro]

I read that too. Don't have too many H1 on one page. True? Don't know but personally I am sticking with 1 x H1, a few H2 and some H3. If the WP theme I choose does'nt accomodate this I will either amend it or change themes.

[GeorgR.]

Originally Posted by aryangarg

better to use h2 tags for keyword.. H1 tags don't have too much priority now because many spammers using this technique. and Search engines know about it.

And who told you that? Matt Cutts in person?

I mean, your reasoning is sound, but IMO your conclusion "don't have much priority" is just an assumption - let alone the assumption that "h2 is better than h1". Facts please, Proof....

[GeorgR.]

Originally Posted by 2stroke

I noticed that depending on what wordpress theme you are using, some will give you multiple H1 tags on a blog post page and some don't.

It is my understanding that Google looks at:
1. Title
2. Description
3. H1 tag
In that order.
(Googles SEO tips also suggests using meta tags but that's a whole different discussion)

I was reading something that said you should never have more than one set of H1 tags on a page. Some themes put every separate blog post title in H1 tags so when you look at the page source there are multiple sets of H1 tags on the same page.

Anyone have any information on thoughts on this?

A good theme will NOT use several H1 tags on one page.

Exception is category and archive pages where it COULD happen that multiple posts are listed (excerpts preferably) and each post title is in H1 on the archive page.

But a good theme should also be intelligent enough and use H2/H3 in those cases...although it dont think it would be a big deal if it would use multiple H1.

The important thing is that the actual post (not the archive listing) has its post title in H1.

[Shirlyn]

From SEO point of view for a webpage or website it is great to have H1.

[Pravir]

In my opinion you should use H1 tag once for your main keyword and use H2 and H3 tag for your LSI keywords in a single post A mix of H tag is a good strategy but don’t over do it .

[clickbump]

Originally Posted by 2stroke

It is my understanding that Google looks at:
1. Title
2. Description
3. H1 tag
In that order.

I think that needs a bit of clarification. All the evidence indicates that the meta Title text and h1 text are evaluated as two of the top on-page ranking factors for a page.

However, the meta description tag does not appear to be used as a ranking factor. The evidence suggests, and there is substantial agreement within the SEO community to believe that it is merely "evaluated" against the content to determine whether or not it will be used as the snippet text that appears in the SERPS listing.

Originally Posted by 2stroke

I was reading something that said you should never have more than one set of H1 tags on a page. Some themes put every separate blog post title in H1 tags so when you look at the page source there are multiple sets of H1 tags on the same page.

Anyone have any information on thoughts on this?

If a theme presents your site's home page in a blog format, the weight of the h1 is diluted in importance when it is repeated multiple times on the same page. That's one of the reasons that a single post home page, focused on a primary keyword phrase, has a significant advantage in ranking against a blog oriented homepage.

So, for the maximum ranking power of the home page, its best to have a single h1 on a static, single post home page and use an "inner blog" (if a blog is needed at all) instead.

[2stroke]

Originally Posted by clickbump

I think that needs a bit of clarification. All the evidence indicates that the meta Title text and h1 text are evaluated as two of the top on-page ranking factors for a page.

However, the meta description tag does not appear to be used as a ranking factor. The evidence suggests, and there is substantial agreement within the SEO community to believe that it is merely "evaluated" against the content to determine whether or not it will be used as the snippet text that appears in the SERPS listing.



If a theme presents your site's home page in a blog format, the weight of the h1 is diluted in importance when it is repeated multiple times on the same page. That's one of the reasons that a single post home page, focused on a primary keyword phrase, has a significant advantage in ranking against a blog oriented homepage.

So, for the maximum ranking power of the home page, its best to have a single h1 on a static, single post home page and use an "inner blog" (if a blog is needed at all) instead.

This was exactly my thinking as well. I have several sites, some with a static home page, some with a dynamic blog as the home page. I know enough html/php/css/mysql to be dangerous, so I edited my themes to show only one H1 tag per page. In the case where my homepage is a dynamic blog, I have each post title as a H2 and then I make sure the widget titles in the sidebar are H3.

For anyone who hasn't checked or may not know how:
Go to your main or home page.
Right click and "view source".
Hit Ctrl - f (brings up find bar at bottom of firefox)
Type H1 in the find box.
Hit "find next" several times to see how many sets of <H1></H1> tags you have.

[mervyngoh]

yes, it is always good to engage H1 tag with your keyword that you want to drive. IT might help.

[2stroke]

While it is true that 1 H1 tag per article is correct, H2 and H3 tags are also important - don't ignore them. Effective use of H2's and H3's is helpful for humans - and, therefore, for the search engines.

As long as your single posts or pages only have one H1 tag you're OK. The titles of your articles on blog or archives pages (which list the most recent posts) should be H2's - and a good theme will ensure this is the case.

Cheers,

Martin.

That's my understanding too, I was surprised when I started looking at my sites and found that some so called "SEO Friendly" themes had multiple H1 tags.

[kiranraj19]

Use targeted keywords in the H1 tags to get more result

[aryangarg]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

And who told you that? Matt Cutts in person?

I mean, your reasoning is sound, but IMO your conclusion "don't have much priority" is just an assumption - let alone the assumption that "h2 is better than h1". Facts please, Proof....

JUST SEARCH FOR ANY KEYWORD and check the source of top 10 web results! majority of websites have keyword in h2 tags instead of h1 tag :P

[LloydC]

I use h1 for the post title, then h2 and h3 for subtitles etc, works for me.

[seoguru1]

I dont think anyone ever said you cant use more than one H1 tag

[refinancepro]

From what I know the better the structure of your site, the better you will rank. Obviously you could rank with multiple h1 tags on a page but it is confusing.

Headline Tags should break down sections. Like the chapters of a book. Since web pages are not that similar to books its not that great of an analogy but still works.

So in theory each page should have an H1 tag which would break down into H2 tags, and any further breakdowns of H2 tags should break to H3, H4, H5 and so on although this is not how everyone uses them.

This is just my understanding of headline tags.

[Josh MacDonald]

Originally Posted by 2stroke

It is my understanding that Google looks at:
1. Title
2. Description
3. H1 tag
In that order.
(Googles SEO tips also suggests using meta tags but that's a whole different discussion)

Why is meta tags a whole different story. Meta tags are another factor that helps you rank for a given keyword. We all know Google looks at the title, description, and h1 tags. However, what we don't know is how many "brownie points" each of those are worth.

[esdavis]

Ideally, the H1 tag is the key visible element on the page to tell Google - and your visitors - what the page is about.

A page should be about one thing, in order to craft the content to rank best for that one thing. So ONE H1 tag with multiple "sub-topic" H2-H3 tags is the best combination from a thematic standpoint.

Unfortunately, many blog themes have missed the boat with this one by using H1 tags for the name of the blog itself in the header.php file, and then using again for the title of the page's content section.

A simple theme hack will fix this for good, and it should only take a couple of minutes for anybody familiar with Wordpress theme coding to do. If you're comfortable with PHP to edit the theme, just check out the header.php file, the post content section on the blog pages/posts templates, and the H tags in the various archives pages. That should catch most if not all of them.

If you're not up to the PHP editing, a Fiverr person should be able to do half a dozen theme edits in an single gig, easy.

[Peter1970]

One H1 tag per post or article published? A lot of contradictory information on the best practice regarding this. To be safe, I play it one H1 tag in the text of the post or article and then several H2 or H3 always with variations of the keyword.