I got an email from people asked me: My site’s template has multiple H1 tags. Is this a problem? The answer is short and easy. It’s not a problem. John Mueller from the Google Webmaster Team had made comment on multiple H1 tags.

“With HTML5, it’s common to have separate H1 elements for different parts of a page. If you use an HTML5 template, there is a chance your pages will correctly use multiple H1 headings automatically. That said, regardless of whether you use HTML5 or not, having multiple H1 elements on a page is fine. Semantically marking us your page’s content to let search engines know how it fits together is always a good idea. If you end up using multiple headings on a page, that’s fine.”

What is H1 tag?

The H1 tag is a markup in an HTML document. The markup is the <h1> tag in HTML, will usually be the title of a post, or other emphasized text on the page. It will usually be the largest text that stands out.

h1 heading serp

For example, an H1 tag looks like this in HTML:

<h1>Your Heading Text Here</h1>

When your web browser encounters that text string, it knows that it’s HTML markup. As a result, it doesn’t output the string “<h1>” to your screen. Instead, your browser formats the string that follows it. In this Case, you will see the text like this in the browser:

Your Heading Text Here

If your browser sees “<h1>An SEO Guide for Beginner</h1>”, it will format the string “An SEO Guide for Beginner”.

Don’t forget the closing tag. That “</h1>” is a closing tag. It tells your browser when to stop formatting the text. If the HTML document author forgot to include that closing tag, the whole page would appear in large font. Nothing would stand out.

How H1 tag related to SEO?

The H1 tag is the most important heading because it’s the highest level tag that shows what your specific page is about. Search engines generally give this tag more weight over other headings, so it usually improves your search engine ranking when you use it correctly and in conjunction with other onsite SEO techniques.

Search Engine Land says “that the H1 tag holds the most SEO weight out of all headings.”

Also, Moz’s 2015 survey of search engine ranking factors lists “Page-Level Keyword and Content-Based Metrics” as the third most important ranking factor. That large category includes “keyword term/phrase in particular parts of the HTML code on the page (title element, H1s, alt attributes, etc).”

So it’s important to optimize your H1 tag for search results.

There are other header tags in HTML too, like an h2, h3, h4, etc.  Each can have a lesser degree of importance on the page.

How To write a H1 heading for better SEO?

When you are compelling an H1 header, ask yourself the questions:

  • Does the H1 tag text stand out?
  • Is it the largest text on the page?
  • Does the design fall in line with the overall look and feel of the page?
  • Is there plenty of whitespace before and after the H1 tag so that text isn’t running together?

Put yourself in the shoes of a visitor to your site. Ask if it would look great to somebody in your target market.

When you write your h1 tag, It’s going to be similar to write your page title tag.  Sometimes these can be the same, and that’s OK.  Here are a few tips:

  • Your H1 tag should be at the top of the page content (above any other heading tags in the page code). If your site is divided into columns the left column may appear “higher” in the code. Be sure it does not contain any H1 tags as most likely the center column contains the main content of the page.
  • Your H1 tag should contain your most important keywords for that page and if possible the first word or words in the H1 should be the keywords. These should also match the page title keywords and META keywords.
  • Your H1 tag should help your reader understand what the page is about.

Here is another old video from Matt Cutts. He talked about how to compel and design an H1 header which properly fit into the overall page design.

Conclusion

Now you know it’s certainly OK to have multiple H1 tags on a page. Make it a point today to go over your content and find areas of improvement in your H1 tags so that you can attract more people to your website.

If you have questions about using H1 tags or need help optimizing your website, contact your webmaster or contact us. We’ll be happy to review your site and assist you in optimizing your website to improve your search engine ranking.

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