 Are <h> Tags Really Vital? |
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High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum > Search Engine Optimization > Search Engine Friendly Design & Usability  |
 May 8 2009, 10:29 AM
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#1
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HR 4  Group: Active Members Posts: 184 Joined: 21-February 06 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 03:52 PM Member No.: 10,584  |
Hi, I dont really have any <h1> tags in my code - am I an idiot?
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May 8 2009, 10:33 AM
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#2
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HR 4 Group: Active Members Posts: 183 Joined: 8-April 09 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 04:52 PM Member No.: 25,516 |
No one would call you an idiot here, even if you were being a plonker! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohno.gif)
The question is do you have any headings on your page? If so, why are they not in heading tags? |
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May 8 2009, 11:29 AM
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#3
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 High Rankings Advisor  Group: Admin Posts: 29,199 Joined: 21-July 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 10:52 AM From: Ashland, MA Member No.: 2 |
QUOTE(lister @ May 8 2009, 11:29 AM)  Hi, I dont really have any <h1> tags in my code - am I an idiot? Nope, not an idiot. In my opinion, they're not a necessary piece of the SEO equation. Others, I know, would beg to differ, however. |
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May 8 2009, 01:31 PM
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#4
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HR 5  Group: Moderator Posts: 390 Joined: 8-June 06 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 09:52 AM Member No.: 12,082 |
No effect whatsoever. Use or don't use due to presentation taste or needs. Nothing to do with SEO.
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May 8 2009, 01:41 PM
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#5
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High Rankings Advisor Group: Admin Posts: 29,199 Joined: 21-July 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 10:52 AM From: Ashland, MA Member No.: 2 |
QUOTE(BBCoach @ May 8 2009, 02:31 PM) No effect whatsoever. Use or don't use due to presentation taste or needs. Nothing to do with SEO. If you sat in on any of the site review clinics at SES or SMX you'd hear a different story (other than the panels I'm on!). |
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May 8 2009, 06:29 PM
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#6
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HR 4 Group: Active Members Posts: 184 Joined: 21-February 06 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 03:52 PM Member No.: 10,584 |
Great news. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing a vital piece of the mix...
Thanks for advice - its a great forum. |
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May 9 2009, 06:15 AM
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#7
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 HR 6 Group: Active Members Posts: 610 Joined: 27-February 04 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 11:52 AM Member No.: 2,696 |
Even if they are not useful now, might they not be useful in the future? Or is it the SEO consensus that they have been abused too much? Do they have *any* effect? Are they at least as useful as normal text?
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May 9 2009, 08:23 AM
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#8
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High Rankings Advisor Group: Admin Posts: 29,199 Joined: 21-July 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 10:52 AM From: Ashland, MA Member No.: 2 |
QUOTE Even if they are not useful now, might they not be useful in the future? It's not like it's ever been an SEO thing. H tags were not created for search engines, the way meta keywords tags or meta description tags were. They're a design element. But like I said there are many very good SEOs out there who swear by the H1 tag. So who knows? I don't personally ever worry about the, nor have I for 10 years or so. |
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May 9 2009, 07:40 PM
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#9
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HR 1 Group: Members Posts: 9 Joined: 7-May 09 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 10:52 AM Member No.: 25,742 |
I gues it is my philosophy to use all white hat type seo available proven or not. Unlees it may provide visitors with less than a quality visit.
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May 10 2009, 09:06 PM
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#10
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HR 5 Group: Moderator Posts: 390 Joined: 8-June 06 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 09:52 AM Member No.: 12,082 |
QUOTE If you sat in on any of the site review clinics at SES or SMX you'd hear a different story (other than the panels I'm on!). I hear it all the time and it still doesn't make it so. I get very high rankings on a plethora of product pages and NONE have H tags on the page. There's not one H tag on my site. I used to believe it (maybe 6 years ago) and my testing doesn't show any ranking pop for using H tags. It's for display purposes only and has no effect on SEO.
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May 11 2009, 04:57 AM
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#11
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HR 4 Group: Active Members Posts: 183 Joined: 8-April 09 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 04:52 PM Member No.: 25,516 |
<h#> tags are for putting headings in as part of the DOM.
you use them where ever you have headings to display, this has nothing to do with SEO. the same as the title tag, it's for putting the page title in, remember the DOM was created and HTML before SE's. Using the right tag for the right content is a SEMANTIC thing, not an SEO thing. OK, the SE's use certain tags and page content to index pages, but you do not put or leave out a <h#> tag based on your opinion of whether the SE's use it for indexing, you put them in or leave them out depending on whether the page content has any headings! |
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May 11 2009, 03:32 PM
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#12
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 Vintage Babe Group: Moderator Posts: 4,142 Joined: 31-July 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 10:52 AM From: Triangle area, NC, USA, Earth (usually) Member No.: 89 |
Came across this blog post today. Interesting timing, considering the topic of this discussion. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink1.gif)
Basically, in certain specific situations where the title tag is severely malformed, Google will apparently use the first available well-formed <h> tag as the title in the SERP snippet. Of course, this won't apply in the majority of situations -- and I'd never advise deliberately malforming your title just to get Google to recognize an <h> tag in place of the title. That's just crazy-talk. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) I generally try to use them for accessibility. Some screen reader software will allow visitors to jump from one section of content to another by skipping to the next <h> tag, which lets visually impaired visitors "scan" the content in much the same way a sighted visitor will scan the headers visually. Has nothing to do with SEO, but does impact usability. --Torka (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_prop.gif) |
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May 11 2009, 03:57 PM
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#13
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High Rankings Advisor Group: Admin Posts: 29,199 Joined: 21-July 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 10:52 AM From: Ashland, MA Member No.: 2 |
Good find, Torka. And very interesting info.
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May 11 2009, 04:33 PM
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#14
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 HR 2 Group: Active Members Posts: 45 Joined: 23-February 09 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 03:52 PM From: UK Member No.: 24,604 |
I am 90% sure I have read a Matt cutts (blog?) post about SEO and H1 tags, basically he was saying that Google do treat them differently, we deal in news where I work, and I always make sure that the title is in the title and also in the body as h1, it seems to do better that way ...
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May 12 2009, 08:08 AM
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#15
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High Rankings Advisor Group: Admin Posts: 29,199 Joined: 21-July 03 User's local time: Feb 9 2010, 10:52 AM From: Ashland, MA Member No.: 2 |
QUOTE it seems to do better that way ... Have you ever tested it without doing that? Or having the headline simply be bold? If so, what was the difference? If not, then how do you know there is a difference? |
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