How to optimize the heading tags structure for eCommerce websites?

Heading tags are one of the most important, yet underutilized, on-page SEO elements. It has an impact on both the SEO and usability of your site. This article will show you how to optimize the heading tags to get more search engine traffic.


All About The Headers

There are six header tags, ranging from H1 to H6. The most important heading tag is the h1 tag and least important is the h6 tag. In HTML coding the header tags from h1 to h6 form a hierarchy. This means that if you skip any of the tag numbers (ie. jump from 1 to 3) the heading structure will be broken, and this is not ideal for on-page SEO.

The coding should be something like what is shown below:

<h1>Main Heading</h1>
<h2>Secondary Heading 1</h2>
<h3>Sub-section of the secondary heading 1</h3>
<h2>Secondary Heading 2</h2>
<h3>Sub-section of the secondary heading 2</h3>

The h1 tag is the most important tag. Every page must have an h1 tag.

Header tags from SEO point of view

Relevancy: Search engine spiders check the relevancy of the header tag with the content associated with it.
Keyword Consistency: The search engine spiders check the keyword consistency between the header tags and other parts of the page.
The Importance of an h1 Tag: The h1 is the most important tag and it should never be skipped on a page. Search spiders pay attention to the words used in the h1 tag as it should contain a basic description of the page content, just as the page <title> does .
Enriched User Experience: Heading tags give the user a clear idea of what the page content is about. Search engines give much importance to user-experience on a site, meaning the presence of heading tags becomes an important component of SEO.

Header tags from usability point of view

For users of the web who must use a screen reader, it is easier to navigate sections of content by referring to properly structured headings on a page.
The h1 heading tag (main heading) of a page gives users a quick overview of the content that is to follow on the page.
By reading the different heading tags, users can scan a page and read only the section they are interested in.
The primary use of heading tags is for SEO, not to gain the larger, more prominent fonts; but the presentation of a web page does look cleaner with the presence of these tags.

Optimize the heading tags structure for a Magento website

Let me give you a sample structure for a typical Magento website. This is just a sample for a typical website, so specific needs need to be considered for specific cases. You can ask for an audit in which, among other things, we'll recommend what's best for your specific case in terms of heading structure.

Homepage:

H1: Logo
H2: Tagline or some non site wide homepage only element such as "The best blue widget store in Neverland, voted by Neverland's Choice Magazine"; If there are featured products, you might want their titles in H2 as well.
H3: In most cases nothing.
H4: In most cases nothing.
H5: In most cases nothing.
H6: In most cases nothing.

Category page:

H1: Category title.
H2: Titles of products listed.
H3: In most cases nothing.
H4: In most cases nothing.
H5: In most cases nothing.
H6: In most cases nothing.

Product page:

H1: Product name.
H2: If there are multiple sections within product description (long description text) then headings of those sections could be H2.
H3: In most cases nothing.
H4: In most cases nothing.
H5: In most cases nothing.
H6: In most cases nothing.

CMS page:

H1: Title of the CMS page.
H2: If text has multiple headings, whose headings should be H2.
H3: In most cases nothing.
H4: In most cases nothing.
H5: In most cases nothing.
H6: In most cases nothing.