Using H1 Headings - More than 1?
-
I've known about avoiding the use of more than 1 H1 Heading Tags, however, with HTML5 is this going to change... at least that's how I understand it.
According to HTML5 Specs, Each 'section' can have an H1 heading, which at least theoretically means certain web pages that have multiple "sectioning elements" can have more than 1 H1 heading... true? False?
What I'm looking for here is some insight into the ramifications HTML5 will have on the use of H1 tags.
And would like to know how search engines currently handle this and are they anticipated to change as the HTML5 outline algorithm becomes widely supported?
thanks in advance
Kelly
-
Thanks for the answer, I do appreciate the time you took .
-
Great question. Yes, HTML5 allows for, and in some ways even encourages use of multiple H1 tags for certain types content, but.....
It's really not a big deal. Right now, there's very little correlation data that shows much of a difference in rankings between pages that use the h1, don't use it at all, or use it multiple time. In the old days, this was a bigger deal, but not so much.
(interestingly, there seems to be a slight correlation with the number of H4 tags, although this probably is only an indication of well-structured content.)
If there is any effect, the H1 tag in HTML5 may help webmasters better organize their content, and may provide better semantic structuring that the search engines are able to use and interpret.
Hopefully it's a good thing.
-
Because it is not out and nobody is the search engine the best you can get is speculation. If you want opinion, here is mine. You can put multiple H1 tags into your code now, even if it is not good optimization, so I don't see why you would not be able to do so in all future versions. The reality is search engines only give minor weight to the first H1 tag on the page and don't even really look at your h2 h3 h4 ect tags. If they ever allowed multiple h1 tags, I'm sure the search engines would either put even less importance on the h tag, if any at all, or would do what it is doing now and look at the first one and disregard all others. The main use of h tags is to create good readable content not to optimize for seo.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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.
Related Questions
-
Which woocommerce product filter plugin should I use?
Hi! I have to choose a premium woocommerce product filter plugin, but I can't make up my mind since there are so many options out there. I tried to compare some of them, but I would like to hear from experts or people who already bought and run one of them on their websites in order to focus on the better one. Is there a particular plugin which stands out from the crowd? Are there product filter plugins you definitely do not recommend buying? What I am looking for is a SEO oriented plugin( some search results by filters like sizes, colors, in stock /out of stock should not be indexed at all while categories should be normally indexed), easy to use (I am not a developer and I have to be able to set up filters by myself easily), compatible with wpml and and, last but not least, the plugin support should be reliable and helpful. I am looking forward to your suggestions. thanks in advance
Web Design | | manunika0 -
Interlinking using Dynamic URLs Versus Static URLs
Hi Guys, Could you kindly help us in choosing best approach out of mentioned below 2 cases. Case. 1 -We are using: We interlink our static pages(www.abc.com/jobs-in-chennai) through footer, navigation & by showing related searches. Self referential Canonical tags have been implemented. Case. 2 -We plan to use: We interlink our Dynamic pages(www.abc.com/jobs-in-chennai?source=footer) through footer, navigation & by showing related searches. Canonical tags have been implemented on dynamic urls pointing to corresponding static urls Query 1. Which one is better & expected to improve rankings. Query 2. Will shifting to Case 2 negatively affect our existing rankings or traffic. Regards
Web Design | | vivekrathore0 -
What do you use for test rendering your dev site?
I'm redesigning our company ecommerce site and need to test render an infinite scroller to ensure that it is as SEO friendly as possible. My problem is that I cannot view it in Webmaster Tools since I am blocking the site from crawlers using robots.txt. I know I could simply unblock Google temporarily but I really would rather not make my dev site available to search engine crawlers.
Web Design | | bearpaw0 -
Using a 301 vs. 302?
I'm running into a very confusing situation - and while I think I've worked through the answer, I'm hoping someone can help provide their insight. I have a client who is in the process of rolling out a responsive site. Because we need to host both Responsive and legacy versions of product pages on the domain we are using the following URL pattern. New Responsive Product Page exampleurl.com/product (existing URL structure) Older Product Pages (redirected to) exampleurl.com/legacy/product The rollout will be approximately 2 months to complete. The question becomes - should a 302 redirect be applied from the existing URl to the /legacy/ URLs until the new designs are launched? Given that the timing will be so short this seems reasonable. Or should a 301 be applied until the new responsive designs are rolled out?
Web Design | | JonClark150 -
Using a lightbox
Using a lightbox type thing for our new website (you click on an image and then get a bigger version of image). Is there any best practices SEO wise for this and any no no's I should be aware of? It's all hard coded so not going the normal way via wordpress of using thumbnails then the larger original image as you click on the thumbnail, using two separate images- this sound to you guys?
Web Design | | Jon-C0 -
Is anyone using Humans.txt in your websites? What do you think?
http://humanstxt.org Anyone using this on their websites and if so have you seen and positive benefits of doing so? Would be good to see some examples of sites using it and potentially how you're using the files. I'm considering adding this to my checklist for launching sites
Web Design | | eseyo1 -
Amazon s3 how do i use it as a cdn service
Hi i have signed up to s3 amazon and have uploaded my images to my bucket but the trouble i am having is, how do i have the images on my site. i have tried to use the url that it is showing but all that is doing is https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/in2town/audreyrobertslarge.jpg not bringing up the image on my site and when i have done it through the internet search box it does not bring up an image. I have been told this is a great cdn service and a cost effective one but i really need to learn how to use it. has anyone used this service and if so can you please let me know what i need to do I have now managed to get a bit futher with the help of stuart Bell but the images are still not showing on my site. any help would be great. many regards
Web Design | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Why or why not use Dot Net Nuke (DNN)?
I have development team pitching my client on using Dot Net Nuke (DNN) for the CMS. I have no experience with DNN and not sure why the developers want to use it. They do want to use Server SQL and may build some software for a different part of the project in .NET. What SEO and UX questions should I ask about using DNN?
Web Design | | Joshen0