How many h1, h2, h3 etc should there be on a webpage ?

by d2s
48 replies
  • SEO
  • |
How many heading tags should be on a website ? On my ProductsPriceComparison.com website i went out to h3. What is the proper amount i should have for good SEO ?
#webpage
  • Profile picture of the author Lanx
    programs like seopressor would have you believe you need h1/h2/h3, i think onsite seo is dead, at most, a h1 imo, but seo is subjective, you'll get lots of opinions.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7823447].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author challanger
      Originally Posted by Lanx View Post

      programs like seopressor would have you believe you need h1/h2/h3, i think onsite seo is dead, at most, a h1 imo, but seo is subjective, you'll get lots of opinions.
      Ohh, really?? really ou meant On-Page SEO is dead...
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7828605].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author cheaporganicSEO
    I would strongly recommend only 1 H1 per page. Much better to run 1 H1 and 5 H2s than 6 H1s.
    As far a Google, while I cant say for sure it will be a penalty , why risk it? I can tell you it is a fact that Bing webmaster tools will return a site error to be corrected on site with multiple H1s so there is a real possiblity that is a pentaly in their algorithm. Hope this helps!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7823566].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ProSence
    I would say there should be one h1 tag and there would be unlimited h2, h3, h4 etc..
    Signature

    three great FREE tools - www.sitebeak.com, www.GAtective.com and www.impersonal.me

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7823667].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ryshark
    I thought it was best to have only one per page regardless if it is H1, H2, or H3. I'm interested to hear more on this thread.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7823927].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author jhon once
    One H1 per page, like the title tag/element and imo they should be similar.

    When starting out I had a site which had about 5 H1s per page, because I liked the formatting on the H1 far more than the H2 or H3. Css was not around in them days and that site never ranked very well back then.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7823940].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author smodha
    I only ever use one <h1> tag. That's all you need for on-page optimization (experience from my pages).

    I have never bothered with the other tags.
    Signature
    I Sell What People Want. The Money Is A Bonus..
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7824653].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author CTRTheme
    Banned
    1 <h1> 1 <h2> 2<h3> that's all.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7824832].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author easypr
    I suggested use 1 H1 tag in pages then after use any number of tag according to your page requirements.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7825039].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author CTRTheme
    Banned
    A page only can have 1 <h1> and <h2> and any number of <h3> but h4 onwards tags are useless.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7825389].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author ryshark
      Originally Posted by CTRTheme View Post

      A page only can have 1 <h1> and <h2> and any number of <h3> but h4 onwards tags are useless.
      So you are saying it is ok to have 1x <h1> and 1x <h2> both on the same page?
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7828324].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author RimaNaj2011
        I make sure to have H1 and H2, I don't pay attention to the rest.

        Also, don't make it exact match. SO if you want to rank for "blue widgets" make the H1 tag "Get Blue Widgets from Us at Widgets R Us"

        Also, no on-page SEO is not dead. Far from it.
        Signature

        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7828372].message }}
  • {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7828585].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author challanger
    Head tags needed to be used according to content requirements. if you content needed headings then you should use Head tags.

    there is not any kind of penality on quantity of head tags. but yes more headings will ruin the content somehow....

    for example you used 4 headings (mixture of h1,h2,h3,h4) just in 150-200 words content. then its obvious it looks bad....

    so, use these tags according to content requirement
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7828612].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author trade4861
    If your referring to headings, I would never use more than one H1 heading on a page. Then I use H3 headings throughout the page to signify a major transition in the body paragraphs. Try to include a keyword or two in the H3 headings that are related or identical to your main thesis in your introduction. For example,

    Page Title: 2002 Honda Civic Oil Pump Removal & Installation

    H1: Oil Pump Removal & Installation

    Introduction: The following oil pump removal and installation procedures apply to the 2002 Honda Civic 2.0L VTEC automobiles.

    H3: Oil Pump Removal

    Body paragraphs

    H3: Oil Pump Installation

    Body Paragraphs

    Summary Paragraph

    This method works great for me.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7828667].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author challanger
      Originally Posted by trade4861 View Post

      If your referring to headings, I would never use more than one H1 heading on a page. Then I use H3 headings throughout the page to signify a major transition in the body paragraphs. Try to include a keyword or two in the H3 headings that are related or identical to your main thesis in your introduction. For example,

      Page Title: 2002 Honda Civic Oil Pump Removal & Installation

      H1: Oil Pump Removal & Installation

      Introduction: The following oil pump removal and installation procedures apply to the 2002 Honda Civic 2.0L VTEC automobiles.

      H3: Oil Pump Removal

      Body paragraphs

      H3: Oil Pump Installation

      Body Paragraphs

      Summary Paragraph

      This method works great for me.
      Really comprehensive response. Its like you provide consultation service to him/her free of cost. :-)
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7828715].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author nadeemajeedch
      Originally Posted by trade4861 View Post

      If your referring to headings, I would never use more than one H1 heading on a page. Then I use H3 headings throughout the page to signify a major transition in the body paragraphs. Try to include a keyword or two in the H3 headings that are related or identical to your main thesis in your introduction. For example,

      Page Title: 2002 Honda Civic Oil Pump Removal & Installation

      H1: Oil Pump Removal & Installation

      Introduction: The following oil pump removal and installation procedures apply to the 2002 Honda Civic 2.0L VTEC automobiles.

      H3: Oil Pump Removal

      Body paragraphs

      H3: Oil Pump Installation

      Body Paragraphs

      Summary Paragraph

      This method works great for me.

      Really very good explanations.
      Signature

      Must Visit A ColorFul Website ,
      www.itsmyviews.com

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7872873].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ronrule
    I believe it's "42"

    Signature

    -
    Ron Rule
    http://ronrule.com

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7828721].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author crescendo
    The use of the H1 tag mut come about only once on each page. The number of times you use the H2 or H3 tag does not matter much however, you should make sure you don't overuse the tags.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7828745].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author vjboc
    Less is more when it comes to H tags. I would use one one of each H1, H2, and H3. H1 definitely 1.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7831519].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author CTRTheme
      Banned
      Originally Posted by vjboc View Post

      Less is more when it comes to H tags. I would use one one of each H1, H2, and H3. H1 definitely 1.
      Agree. h1 is surely 1 and h2,h3 depends on how many you want, but h4 onwards are useless, have no effect on seo.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7832459].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author zenichanin
    It needs to be semantic. If it is appropriate, then there is no limit. If you're just stuffing heading tags for sake of having them there, they won't help you much. But if you have semantic code, especially HTML5, where you are using section tags, then each section tag should have its own heading. Probably an h3, but that depends on the layout of your page and where it is. Usually you should just have 1 h1 tag for your page/article title.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7832452].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Technoduce
    For a good seo, there must be only one h1 tag whereas the h2, h2 tags can be used any number of times.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7840412].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author 22122gospel
      Typically one <h1> header per post/page, at the beginning of your post.

      Your main keyword for the post should be included between the tags, e.g;

      <h1> KEYWORD reviewed </h1>

      If I'm not mistaken, WordPress automatically makes this <H1> tag when you create a new page or post. The contents of the header are typed in the field where it says "Enter Title Here".
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7840449].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author nadeemajeedch
    Without any tension, you can use multiple H1 heading in your post but make sure that words should be more . i mean to say that if you are using one H1 heading for 25 words only , its make no-sense. But if your post is 6000 words and you are using three H1 headings then there is no issue.
    Signature

    Must Visit A ColorFul Website ,
    www.itsmyviews.com

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7840465].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ProSence
    Only one h1 tag is needed for one page,

    You can use other h2, h3 etc. as many as you can think it fits good.
    Signature

    three great FREE tools - www.sitebeak.com, www.GAtective.com and www.impersonal.me

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7840467].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Shout Out Digital
    Think of the heading tags (h1,h2,h4 etc) as headings from a book. H1 is the main page title, therefore you use only one. H2 is like a subject heading so there could be many subjects in this page topic. H3 is a sub heading of one of your topics in H2 subject and again can have many. h4 is a sub heading of h3 and so on.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7840688].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Jose Princely
    You can have one H1,H2 ,H3 tag in a page.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7840717].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author pinkhand
    You can use as many tags as you like but make sure you are only using one H1 tag or you may be seen as trying to spam the search engines
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7840872].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author arvindsingh00
    I also recommend 1 H1 , 2 H2 and 2-2H3 for both H2

    Means 1 H1
    2 H2 and 4 H3
    would be best for SEO
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7840884].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author johnben1444
    On a webpage you can have up to 2, 3 h tags, that is the rule of thumb but you can have more if you wish.

    The most important thing is, keep it below density level that can't get you penalized.
    Signature
    Grow your social media account, Spotify Streams, YT Views & IG Followers & More
    Software & Mobile APP Developer
    Buy Spotify, Facebook Bot & IG M/S Method
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7840944].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author nancyfromafrica
    no fixed rule but yes 1 H1 is a good practice
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7840972].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Tomas Lodén
    Didn't Matt Cutts say that as long as it makes sense you can have more than one H1 on your page?

    Who said you should only have one H1?
    Signature
    6-fig affiliate marketer since 2003
    Free coaching to your first $100 dollars. DM me now..
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7841054].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author frivoyun
    Thanks for sharing this is very useful in SEO.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7850382].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author shayman
    Yep I'd also say 1x H1 and then a mix of the others as well as make some <p> tags bolder and bigger too i.e.
    Code:
    <p style="font-size: 120%;"><b>Text</b></p>
    etc..or do it on your stylesheet. Just helps to make things look natural.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7850402].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Why are people so mixed up with these things?

      They are not head tags...

      They are heading size, h1 being biggest. That is, in effect, refering to
      the text size.

      It is just one signal google uses. But it's not the end all to end all.

      If your page requires the same heading size in various places, DO IT!

      Has nothing to do with any such nonsense as discussed here.

      These tags were created years before anyone heard about google.

      If people actually created pages for humans...man...what a concept.

      I always feel the less content, the better. This applies to heading
      tags as well. But, if you feel your page needs more than one of
      each, go for it.

      There really is no need in 2013 to do anything smaller than h2.
      Having a bunch of h2's is a very common thing. People have
      gone bonkers over h1, and refuse to have more than one,
      but then go ahead and literally muck up the rest of the page
      using dumb stuff.

      Paul
      Signature

      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7850553].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author shayman
        Originally Posted by paulgl View Post

        Why are people so mixed up with these things?

        They are not head tags...

        They are heading size, h1 being biggest. That is, in effect, refering to
        the text size.

        It is just one signal google uses. But it's not the end all to end all.

        If your page requires the same heading size in various places, DO IT!

        Has nothing to do with any such nonsense as discussed here.

        These tags were created years before anyone heard about google.

        If people actually created pages for humans...man...what a concept.

        I always feel the less content, the better. This applies to heading
        tags as well. But, if you feel your page needs more than one of
        each, go for it.

        There really is no need in 2013 to do anything smaller than h2.
        Having a bunch of h2's is a very common thing. People have
        gone bonkers over h1, and refuse to have more than one,
        but then go ahead and literally muck up the rest of the page
        using dumb stuff.

        Paul
        Disagree with this. Google's own SEO document says:
        Avoid:
        excessively using heading tags throughout the page
        putting all of the page's text into a heading tag
        using heading tags only for styling text and not presenting structure
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7850595].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author 22122gospel
        These tags were created years before anyone heard about google.
        Good points, Google didn't invent header tags anymore than did Al Gore "create" the internet.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7854357].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Heading tags are basically copied over from printed newspapers (headlines) which have been around for years/decades/centuries... they're used to grab the readers attention, which in the olden times is what helped sell printed newspapers (grab the buyers attention). That's your history lesson for today, there will be a quiz tomorrow.

    The <h1> is basically the same as a newspaper headline (the most important text on the page).

    The rest are sub-headings (<h2> - <h6>), the text on the page that's important, only not as important as the headline (<h1>).

    Could you imagine a printed newspaper with multiple headlines (<h1>), kinda defeats the purpose of that specific HTML tag on a webpage.

    Google does a lot of things that are very similar to the offline world before the internet ever existed (newspaper, book, formatting, layout, structure, cataloging).

    Use some self control/common sense, If the text isn't important, don't use an <hx> tag.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7850669].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      Could you imagine a printed newspaper with multiple headlines (<h1>), kinda defeats the purpose of that specific HTML tag on a webpage.
      I always use one, because I only have one article on a page.
      Some people create one page websites. Numerous h2. But man,
      I can't see anyone using h6 in 2013.

      People need to know that bold and strong will do similar things.
      Makes no sense to create a h1 headline, then bold and strong
      other words. Disastrous in many cases, especially in creating
      sites for adsense clicks.

      People over think things, or just plain and simply do not choose
      to learn.

      Google could care less about you using heading tags if your
      page requires them. What they are referring to is
      keyword stuffing. BIG difference.

      Every squidoo page uses numerous (countless) h2 tags.
      In fact, you have to create a minimum number of sections.
      My best squidoo page has no less than 20, yes 20
      sections, all using h2.

      I don't know why people continue to quote google out
      of context or misquote them.

      Makes me wonder about some people. If you have ever
      heard or used HTML5, then you would know that
      having multiple h1's is built in. It's all about how you
      are creating a page, as usual.

      Paul
      Signature

      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7850744].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author RonnieJSmith
    just one h1 tag and then multiple h2 and h3 tags on that page. Remember h1 tag is a main point on the page while h2 and h3 are like sub-main points.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7850729].message }}
  • {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8004590].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author patco
    There is no reason to use many header tags on the SAME page... H1 for your main keyword and 2 or MAXIMUM 3 for your secondary keywords. More Header tags will annoy Google and it won't be helpful. Don't forget to check your keyword density, this is IMPORTANT!
    Signature

    A blog that will show you How to Lose Weight with a cool Quick Weight Loss guide...
    Also enjoy some of my favorite Funny pictures and photos that will make you smile :)

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8004742].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Lanx
    use H1, one time
    use H2, two times
    use H3, three times
    per page

    seo done!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8005245].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Lanx View Post

      use H1, one time
      use H2, two times
      use H3, three times
      per page

      seo done!
      Lol, so they'll end up with 6 <h6> tags.

      They're lucky that an <h24> tag doesn't exist.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8005265].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author SEODollz


    This thread needs more silly. JMO
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8005296].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Super Warrior
    <h1> tag is just an indication to SEs what your page is all about.
    You can use <h2> or <h3> tags as many times as you want on your page.
    If you're not comfortable using <h> tags then you can use <font-size:xem> to create headings.
    Signature
    WARNING:: Wasting time on Facebook? Make $500 in just 24 Hours with this simple strategy!
    Get Free PDF (Direct download, no opt-in required)-->> Read It Now
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8041348].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author hirithk
    Hi
    The h1 h2 etc tags can be there based on the content. Content is important, content is the king in SEO. So content plays important role. h1 tags also plays important role in bringing the keywords in top position.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8041383].message }}

Trending Topics