undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • MozCon
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Digital Marketers
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research
    Moz Pro

    Track AI Overviews in Keyword Research

    Try it free!
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Digital Marketers

      Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. SEO Tactics
  3. Technical SEO
  4. Title Tag vs. H1 / H2

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Title Tag vs. H1 / H2

Technical SEO
5
8
7.8k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • ChristianRubio
    ChristianRubio last edited by Oct 22, 2014, 6:05 PM

    OK, Title tag, no problem, it's the SEO juice, appears on SERP, etc.  Got it.

    But I'm reading up on H1 and getting conflicting bits of information ...

    1. Only use H1 once?
    2. H1 is crucial for SERP
    3. Use H1s for subheads
    4. Google almost never looks past H2 for relevance

    So say I've got a blog post with three sections ... do I use H1 three times (or does Google think you're playing them ...)

    Or do I create a "big" H1 subhead and then use H2s? Or just use all H2s because H1s are scary?  🙂

    I frequently use subheads, it would seem weird to me to have one a font size bigger than another, but of course I can adjust that in settings ...

    Thoughts?

    Lisa

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • RNW_Media
      RNW_Media last edited by Jan 9, 2015, 11:19 AM Jan 9, 2015, 11:19 AM

      Let me add that

      • In many cases the title tag will also contain the website's name, as in
        <title>Awesome Cool Headline | website name<title></li> <li>A good CMS will let you differentiate between headline in title and headline on the page (the H1)</li> <li>If your website is indexed by Google News the shown headline will be the H1, not the title tag</li> </ul></title>
      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • topic:timeago_earlier,3 months
      • twitime
        twitime @ChristianRubio last edited by Oct 23, 2014, 11:34 AM Oct 23, 2014, 11:34 AM

        <title>Awesome Cool Headline<title></p> <p><H1>Awesome Cool Headline<H1></p> <p>This looks correct.  Then use H2 for subheadings.  The title won't get printed on the page so "Awesome Cool Headline" will only show once on the page content.</p></title>

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • ChristianRubio
          ChristianRubio last edited by Oct 23, 2014, 11:20 AM Oct 23, 2014, 11:20 AM

          OK, getting more information ... I think the issue here is this is for a blog and I'm thinking the Title tag usurps the H1.

          For a blog, it would be:

          <title>Awesome Cool Headline<title></p> <p><H1>Awesome Cool Headline<H1></p> <p>which would look redundant.  So I think I could use the first subhead as an H1 if it was written in a way that was relevant to the story, but I'm guessing best practices are H2.  Although if I did that, I'd NEVER have an H1 on my pages unless I was doing a landing page promotion of some sort ... hmmm.</p></title>

          twitime 1 Reply Last reply Oct 23, 2014, 11:34 AM Reply Quote 0
          • ChristianRubio
            ChristianRubio last edited by Oct 23, 2014, 9:49 AM Oct 23, 2014, 9:49 AM

            Ah, so ...

            • Title (duh)
            • H1 header (use as first subhead after lead graph to set the tone for the piece?)
            • H2 for all other subheads
            • Set H1 and H2 at the same font style so no one knows the difference.

            Can someone give me a good example of an H1?  I don't know why I'm a bit stuck on the H1 application, but a few in the wild examples should help.  This is truly appreciated guys!

            Thanks!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • twitime
              twitime last edited by Oct 23, 2014, 9:44 AM Oct 22, 2014, 6:32 PM

              Like others have mentioned you should only have one H1.  This should appear on the page before any other headings such as h2, h3 etc.

              The styling shouldn't matter so the h1 doesn't need to be in a larger font size than the h2's.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • Lumina
                Lumina last edited by Oct 23, 2014, 9:44 AM Oct 22, 2014, 6:22 PM

                Of the 4 points you mention you've seen, I'd say the only one that's entirely incorrect is #3.

                1. Only use H1 once: True. Think of it like a book title. That's the most important thing, so nothing else should share that prominence.

                2. H1 is crucial for SERP: **True. **This is what Google looks to, after your title tag, for information about your page and the content therein. This reaffirms that your metadata, keywords, title, content, etc. are all related - while also showing visitors what this page is about (Google values visitor experience more and more with each update).

                3. Use H1s for subheads. False. Think back to #1 - H1 should be reserved only for the 1 absolute most important thing (which should be your title).

                4. Google almost never looks past H2 for relevance. Kind of true. Google DOES look beyond this (and even parses your body-text), but with each lowering of prominence / heading, Google gives it less weight. #4 is true in the sense that this weight is lessened significantly, but it's incorrect generally - your content is still very important.

                I hope this has been helpful to you! Good luck!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • hammadrafique
                  hammadrafique last edited by Oct 22, 2014, 6:16 PM Oct 22, 2014, 6:16 PM

                  Just use H1 one time, matt cutts said in a video that he would like to see only 1 H1 tag on a page.

                  Create content for better user experience, use headings just for your readers, and don't follow these on page tactics very much. Now everyone knows these techniques, and I don't think Google gives higher weight to these things.

                  Create content for readers

                  Use H1 as your Page's Heading(Just one time)

                  Use H2 where you think it's essential

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • 1 / 1
                  1 out of 8
                  • First post
                    1/8
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  Browse Questions

                  Explore more categories

                  • Moz Tools

                    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                  • SEO Tactics

                    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                  • Community

                    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                  • Digital Marketing

                    Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                  • Research & Trends

                    Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                  • Support

                    Connect on product support and feature requests.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • lina_digital

                    I am trying to generate GEO meta tag for my website where on one page there are multiple locations My question is, Can I add GEO tagging for every address?

                    Am I restricted to 1 geo tag per page or can i add multiple geo tags ?

                    Technical SEO | Jan 17, 2018, 4:49 PM | lina_digital
                    0
                  • trigaudias

                    Google is shortening many of my title tags although they are already quite concise

                    Hi, Title tags of our website are being truncated by Google even though they can be very short (sometimes < 40 characters) and with very few capital letters. We would like to understand why. Example: Principal component analysis (pca) in abcde - OurBrand shows up as: Principal component analysis (pca) in abcd... - OurBrand where abcde is the name of a very common software (5 characters), and OurBrand is a 6 characters long string (could be used in either lower case or upper case). Even when removing the brackets around pca, truncation still occurs... Any clue why?

                    Technical SEO | Apr 26, 2016, 12:52 PM | trigaudias
                    1
                  • ptapley

                    Meta descriptions and h1 tags during a 301 redirect

                    My employer is shifting to a new domain and i am in the midst of doing URL mapping. I realize that many of the meta descriptions and H1 tags are different on the new pages - is this a problem ? Thank you.

                    Technical SEO | May 28, 2015, 3:56 AM | ptapley
                    0
                  • Clicksjim

                    WordPress - How to stop both http:// and https:// pages being indexed?

                    Just published a static page 2 days ago on WordPress site but noticed that Google has indexed both http:// and https:// url's. Usually I only get http:// indexed though. Could anyone please explain why this may have happened and how I can fix? Thanks!

                    Technical SEO | Jan 10, 2013, 7:02 PM | Clicksjim
                    1
                  • Zachary_Russell

                    Genesis WP Theme H1 Tag not properly Used?

                    I am in the process of redesigning my website, and I have been working on the Genesis framework a lot lately, so I used the Genesis framework to make my new site. The URL is http://protechig.com As I look at the H1 on the page (homepage only, every other page has solid h1s from an SEO perspective.) The first thing that I see is that the home page H1 is a links (to protech's home page). The second thing that I see is the the title text is replaced with an image (my logo) and there is a text-indent:-99999; and overflow:hiden; I just want to know from an SEO perspective if this is okay, and, if it isn't, what I could/should to to rectify it. Thanks Zach

                    Technical SEO | Dec 2, 2012, 11:51 PM | Zachary_Russell
                    0
                  • netviper

                    H1 Tag as Logo on the Homepage.

                    So I was working on a Genesis theme website where they have the H1 Tag as the Logo on the homepage.  I wanted this changed because I always use my H1 tag to include a keyword I want to rank for.  I was told by the Genesis Forum Manager that Yoast said the Logo should be the H1 tag on the homepage.  (Yoast has a WP SEO Plugin that is very popular) That makes no sense to me, so I was looking for Opinions. Thanks,

                    Technical SEO | Nov 14, 2012, 2:01 AM | netviper
                    0
                  • Ypsilon

                    Page with h1 and h1 class=

                    Hi, If a page in the source code has boht following elements: class="blogg_rubrik">TITLE OF THE PAGE Is that bad for SEO, since the first H1 is empty? Shouldn't a page use only one H1?

                    Technical SEO | Nov 1, 2011, 3:07 PM | Ypsilon
                    0
                  • ryanwats

                    Microsite on subdomain vs. subdirectory

                    Based on this post from 2009, it's recommended in most situations to set up a microsite as a subdirectory as opposed to a subdomain. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites.  The primary argument seems to be that the search engines view the subdomain as a separate entity from the domain and therefore, the subdomain doesn't benefit from any of the trust rank, quality scores, etc.  Rand made a comment that seemed like the subdomain could SOMETIMES inherit some of these factors, but didn't expound on those instances. What determines whether the search engine will view your subdomain hosted microsite as part of the main domain vs. a completely separate site?  I read it has to do with the interlinking between the two.

                    Technical SEO | Aug 10, 2011, 5:21 PM | ryanwats
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  • Digital Marketers
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.