H1 Tag, necessary or not? Hidden or not?
-
Our new site design utilizes H1 tags on all pages except the home page. We couldn't find a way to work it into the design. That being said, what's the opinion on necessity? Do we need an H1?
If we do the image replacement thing, will that be better for SEO than none at all?
Our old site had one and once we changed it to the term we wanted to optimize for we made the top 10 in less than 60 days. We don't want to lose that placement. Thoughts?
You input is very much appreciated.
-
Thank you to everyone for their feedback. I appreciate it.
-
The short answer is Not...
Here at SEOmoz we ran some correlation data last year to determine the answer to this very question. The result was that we discovered simply using your keywords near the top of the page in a larger font will yield you much the same results as an h1 tag. You can find the Whiteboard Friday where this was introduced here: http://goo.gl/9IJ0X
Also, I strongly encourage you to stay away from most image replacement techniques as they will end up causing you more harm than good. For images please use the ALT tag
-
Keeping the same look and feel, the easiest way to integrate the H1 into the design would be in the "Define your Brand" section, add the h1 tag into the text on the left, and use css to design it so it looks similar.
-
The H1 can help but it isn't the magic bullet that the title element is. Everything's a compromise. You aren't better off without it though.
Is the question because the text that would have gone into the h1 is embedded in am image? If so, have you thought about using Google Web Fonts or Typekit, Kernest, etc as an option? You can create an H1 and add a background image (your current image sans embedded text) behind. It's one option FWIW.
-
I believe having H1 tags are important on each page. The solution of style usually falls into the CSS so that it doesn't stick out that much. As you mentioned, you could put a banner or image over your H1 title, but I believe this would be classified as hidden text, so you're taking your chances.
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
-
Wordpress Tag Organization Tips
Curious if anyone has some good examples of ways to organize your WordPress tags without making your sidebar a football field long and hard to navigate. My blog is https://karmahill.com/blog and I could use some ideas. We have main categories of photo shoot types, for example, "Couples", located on the sidebar. We want to add tags to go with those main categories for further categorization and user experience example: Couples Engagement Proposals Honeymoon Maternity My question is, do I need to make "tag" pages for those posts to reside on or is their another way to get it done with less work, that is much faster? I don't want to have to make 30 tag pages or is that just what you have to do?
Web Design | | photoseo13 -
Are Breadcrumbs Really Necessary?
An SEO provider suggested we add breadcrumbs to the top of each page about 3 years ago, which we did. 3 years later we are going thru the site and find it really busy with lots of redundant and distracting elements. We would like to remove the breadcrumbs from the top of the pages. Is there any real SEO downside to doing so?
Web Design | | Kingalan1
All URLs are listed on our site map so I don't see why Google would not index all pages. Our domain is www.metro-manhattan.com I have uploaded a sample page with a breadcrumb. Thanks,
Alan kbbpS0 -
Is having a site map page necessary?
Hello all! So I know having a sitemap XML file is important to include in your robots.txt file. I also know it is important to submit your XML sitemap to Google and Bing. However, I am wondering if it is beneficial for your site's SEO value to have a sitemap page displayed on your website? Or is this just a redundant action if you have already done the above two actions with your XML sitemap? Thanks in advance!
Web Design | | Myles920 -
Auto - update of h1 to h2
Hi, I have recently inherited an ecommerce website and been tasked with improving SEO. I noticed a lot of pages were using several h1 tags and, with the help of my developer, used the css to overwrite the secondary headings as h2 tags. However, since doing so many of the pages have fallen 15-40 places in the SERPS. The h1 / h2 switch was the only update. Can anyone suggest why the pages would have fallen like this, and if it is a temporary measure likely to recover in time? Thanks to anyone in advance for your help...
Web Design | | DavidIainJeffrey0 -
Does anyone have data on the effect of multiple H1 tags on a page?
One of my website's sub-domains is fed information from a job board master-template, thus my site (and hundreds of other sites) is just branded styling pulling from one external source. Because of the way this master template is set up (not very concerned with SEO best practices), I have found the need to hide the H1 coming from the master template, and display a new separate H1 in my styling. This is being done with user-experience in mind, but how will search engines respond to having two H1s (one hidden, one visible) on a page? I understand that a single H1 is usually ideal, and hidden page components are typically frowned upon because they don't add user value... but in this case, the hidden component is solely for the benefit of the user. I would like to find the best balance of SEO and UX, so I am very interested in any experimental data or case studies on a similar situation.
Web Design | | pbailey0 -
Title Tag Suggestion
Short title tag is more useful so if we just use our targeted keyword in home page title then is it useful.? for example my website: http://www.topnotchlawsuitloans.com/ i am targeting lawsuit loans keyword so if i use <title>TNF - Lawsuit Loans | Lawsuit Funding</title> is batter to use for main page or <title>Lawsuit Loans | Lawsuit Funding | As Low As 1% | PreSettlement Funding</title> can we have to use main targeting keyword on all webpage title tag ? my website have 200+ page and i have to use different title tag for that pages including targated keyword so if i am targeting lawsuit loans in that title, what is best to divide title pipe, hyphen or comma ? does capitalization in title tag wrong effect ? Lawsuit Loans - As low as 1% Lawsuit Loans | As low as 1% Lawsuit Loans, As low as 1% (or i have to use smaller cash in title) for all different page i want to place this kind of title is it best for SEO purpose Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans Fargo Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans Escondido Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans Erie Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans Flint Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans Fort Wayne Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans Fresno Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans Gainesville Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans Grand Rapids Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans Gilbert Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans Gresham Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans High Point Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans Hialeah Lawsuit Loans - Lawsuit Loans Huntsville if i am using this kind of different title for all page then it can effective for SEO or it will be come in keyword stuffing
Web Design | | JulieWhite0 -
How Important is Title Tag while viewing in browser's tab
Hi SEOmozer,I have a dumb/silly question. Ok, I know Title tags are important for SEO and users and it shows up in the SERP and all that. My question is that, using a weird CMS, I have the title tag implemented and it appear in the SERP the way I want it. However, the problem is that when I hover over the tab on the browser, it doesn't appear the same way it is in the SERP. Does that really matter that it appears differently? I checked the HTMl and this what I got<title>Example Keywordtitle><meta name="layout" content="main"/><meta name="description" content="Keyword 1 | Keyword 2 | Company Name"/>So whats within the "content" is showing in the SERP and what is in "title" tag is showing in the browser tab. Shouldn't they be the same?
Web Design | | TommyTan0 -
Linking to an image with the keyword in the title and alt tags.
Hi guys, Just thought I'd ask for opinions about an ecommerce catalog I'm working on. I don't know if it's even worth worrying about, but here's the scenario. Let's say I'm linking to a category called 'Sale' using an image, I have the title tag of the link as 'Sale', the image title is also 'Sale' as well as the alt tag. The HTML looks like this: Sale The page itself is: http://www.fashionbasicsonline.com/catDisplay So my question is, do you think I'm stuffing the keyword in too many times there? It's CMS driven so I could have the alt tag as 'Sale Products' or one of the titles as 'Sale Catalog' perhaps, do you think there would be a benefit in doing that? Maybe it's microoptimisation and I should be looking at other low hanging fruit, but I'm just trying to come up with the best scenario. Would love to hear what you think. Cheers, Bruce p.s. Looking forward to meeting as many people as possible at MozCon next week 🙂
Web Design | | bruce_werdschinski0