H1 tags, otherwise known as a header tag is an HTML element that tells search engines (and users) about the information architecture of a page. Unlike titles [LINK], header tags have text that is displayed to the user and signifies the organization of the page. The H1 header tag is typically the summary of what the page is for users and search engines use this to help understand the page’s content.
Why are H1 Tags Important to SEO?
Changing on page elements, like H1s, used to create significant SERP changs, but now don’t offer as much impact. H1s are still very important as they typically are the main summary of the page for users to see. The user experience is crucial to Google and the overall architecture of the content can improve readability for users. Search engines still take this into account. And the text within an H1 is a major component of how the content relates to the search query. But, it’s not just H1s - it’s really more about how all the header tags (H1s, H2s, H3s, etc.) work together in a cohesive manner to make the page easily understood by users and that they relate to what the user was looking for in their query.
Using H1 Tags
H1 tags and other Header tags (h2, h3, etc.) are common HTML elements that display text. Typically, sites are designed where header tags are displayed more prominently than normal text. To add a header tag, within the body section of the HTML code, the tag is: <h1>example h1 text goes here</h1>. For h2s or h3s, the tag is the same HTML code, just uses <h2> or <h3> instead.
Benefits of H1 Tags
A good way to understand the benefits of using headers in a methodological manner is to envision a page without any headers - just all normal text in paragraphs. It becomes more like a long book - without bite size chunks to ground the user to the major tenets captured in the content. Search engines take user experience into account and when a user is searching for an answer to their query, a 20 page long article with no title and no bullets anywhere doesn’t sound as appealing as a 2 page article that has a bold summary and 11 major bolded points that also seem relevant to the summary. It becomes a quickly scannable article that is easier to read. It’s the structure that helps create the readability and Header HTML tags can make it easy to read the page if they are styled differently than the surrounding text.
- Search Relevancy – Easily help search engines understand the content and major points on the page
- Readability – Enhance the readability for the user to understand the major concepts by scanning the header tags instead of reading the entire page.
- Accessibility - For users with visual disabilities structuring the page with header tags can help to make important content snippets stand out and become more understandable.
H1 Best Practices
Header tag best practices have changed significantly in the past few years. It used to be important to have one H1, but not anymore. In fact, Google has stated that headers are not even necessary. Their crawlers can read pages that are semantically easy, structured well using tags or structured well with styled text. The important piece is to craft pages in a manner that makes them easy to digest - user experience trumps tags. H1s, H2s, H3s can offer both structure and readability that can ensure that your team doesn’t stray from creating pages that are great for users and easy for search engines to relate to focus keywords. Let’s dig into how to best use them, if you choose to structure your page that way. The first is the H1 - it should be the main point and be in the first section of content on your page. Then think about the rest of your content as an outline - what are the major parts that need to be reinforced - and reinforce those with another header. For example:H1: Main summary
H2: Major point #1
H2/H3: Example a
H2/H3: Example b
H2/H3: Example c
H2: Major Point #2
H2/H3: Minor issue a
H2/H3: Minor issue b
H2: Major Point #3
H2: Major Point #4
H2: Conclusion/Next Steps
Helping users understand the major and minor points/examples through well organized structure will improve the user experience. This is the key - a good outline improves how users read and access your content.
Header Tags vs. Other Methods
Google has stated that there are many ways to structure pages that work well in search, but we still think that headers are the easiest way to ensure your URLs are in a tidy package that makes crawling simple and reading great for users.
- Styled Text - By signifying to users that some text is more important with styling, you will accomplish much of what header tags were envisioned to accomplish. This is a great alternative, if the content is structured well. Just note, that finding issues within styled text might be more challenging from a management perspective.
- Multiple H1s - With HTML5, some pages rely on multiple H1s. This used to be against the recommendations of SEOs since there would be multiple main points for crawlers to interpret. Now, multiple H1s don’t tire crawlers like they used to and for some pages it makes sense to have multiple H1s. For example, pages aggregating topics may choose to use multiple H1s. The key here is if it makes sense from a user’s perspective it likely will make sense to use them. Don’t just make every keyword you're targeting into various H1s on a page. That’s spammy and Google caught onto this trick many years ago
- Single H1 - This is the most common method of using H1s and is easy to understand why. Each page usually has one main focus and this can be delivered via a single H1 - easy, done. Everything else is a point that reinforces that H1 and can be delivered via H2s/H3s, etc. It’s easy to explain and easy to review for issues.
Identifying Changes with Header Tags
When H1 or other header tag changes, it’s always best to make sure they still include the major points in a structured way that relates to the concepts conveyed in the content. Some of these changes can be impactful, especially when product managers, developers, SEO managers and marketers all have the ability to make changes that impact SEO. There are several ways to identify important changes.
- Manual Audit - Have all the header tags in a database or excel where you can query changes of the current site vs. older versions. This can work, but takes considerable effort to setup and maintain for accurate results.
- Automated In-house System - Setup your own auditing system that checks every page template and/or every page that changed to make sure headers are not changed and if they are, alert systems are setup. This typically requires a full time team of developers and SEO managers to ensure the system is maintained and QA’d appropriately when things break.
- SaaS SEO Change Monitoring System - Applications, like SEORadar, track SEO changes and send notifications of critical header tag changes. Alerts can be sent to SEO managers, developers or product managers to ensure that important changes (like when H1s are removed) are reviewed. Even before going live, you can know that the header tags are maintained correctly by comparing staging vs. live websites or by comparing today vs. yesterday production audits. These systems are maintained by an outside team and kept up to date to create accurate results.
Common Questions About Header Tags
- Can I use multiple H1s?
Yes, as long as it makes sense within the page architecture - i.e. isn’t spammy
- Do my H1s need to be written with the keyword in it?
No, as long as your H1 helps users understand the major point of the page, it should work - it’s not a bad idea to have it include the focus keyword, but you don’t need to stuff that keyword into multiple headers.
- Do I need to use headers at all?
No, headers are just one way for search engines to understand the major points on a page. Styled text can accomplish this also, but it might be harder for you to audit.
Future of Header Tags
Header tags have become less important as a tool itself. However, the purpose of header tags, to clarify the page’s information architecture, has not. The information should be structured well and this is unlikely to change in the near future.
