Link Value, <h1>?

The truth is, yes. Google, and I don't specifically know who or what
I mean when I say, "google," has said many times that the further
up on a page, the better "value" it has. Many big engineers at google
run webinars, blogs, updates, etc.

I'll stop there for a moment and explain why. Because most bots,
including googlebots, don't need to scan the whole page, and
many times will not get to the bottom. That's the main reason.

Google puts a lot of emphasis on what is at the top of the page.
Many times this could mean what's first in the code even. Adsense
users have a way of designating the "first" adsense ad, even though
it appears after another ad on the page.

If people only knew about that "top of the page" thing, they might
get better adsense ads and revenue.

The further down, the less valuable the links are. High up on a page,
in some sort of text content, is best.

Footer links are the bottom of the food chain.

So, all things being equal, up high is better.

But "header" means the top of the page.

<h1> is NOT a header. It's heading size.

I would never put a link in a heading tag.

Paul

H1 tag in HTML means heading size 1, P tag means paragraph, A means Anchor.

It would be wrong considering HTML semantic to place a link into a heading of a paragraph, I suppose that big G would not like that, too.

There isn't more.

It's simply bad for user experience, H1 is supposed to play a major part in shaping the content theme for your page.

If the first heading you have is directing users to another page, what sort of message do you think that sends out about the importance/relevance of the linking page itself?

I'd much rather use a contextual in line link than a screaming header link.

H1 only tells Google robot (and other Search engines) that your website is ABOUT a keyword. Without doing it right (other ON-PAGE SEO methods) you can't rank a website for the specific keyword. But why do you want to use this:

<h1><a href="http://xxxxx.com">Nice car</a> to drive</h1>

This will NOT help your website because you place a keyword WITH a link to ANOTHER website is this H1 tag!