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
-
H1 tag within on top nav but css class styled appear at bottom
Hi, Sorry the similar question could have been ask previously but I couldn't get an exact answer. Someone put a h1 tag on our homepage (which do not have before) and the is within the top nav. But it has a css style class in that h1 tag to make it appear at the bottom of the page so not everyone would be aware of that small h1 title. I personally do not think that's going to help with seo. However I want to know if this practice is going to be: beneficial, or not at all? or harmful instead? Thanks LM
Web Design | | LauraHT0 -
Google Translate with "no-follow" just for users' use, no ranking
Hello, I tried to search but here is a little unique situation. I would like to translate my website in 2-3 different languages not for ranking purpose, but only for some minority users within Italy to understand the content in their native language. Using "no-follow" with a Google Translate link would damage SEO? if not I would like to use it. Here are few points: Give users the ability to switch the content to their language with a link Tell Google not to follow the translated pages, because I don't want them to be used for ranking or searches I would start simply with Google Translate to see if people actually are interested, then later translate by human but still don't want google to follow I could also start with human translation instead of Google Translate if really needed, I know it is a no no. What I'm very interested is to make sure that those pages under "no-follow" won't affect my SEO in good or bad right now, because we would like to keep as it is. Thanks a lot
Web Design | | angelowei0 -
Getting a highly ranked site a better result for 1 search term
I have a highly ranked website for a niche category. My site ranks higher in SEOMOZ than all of my competitors, but I can't get any higher than 4th on a page for one specific search term. What can I do to help my site increase its ranking on a specific search term?
Web Design | | tadden0 -
Using More Info javascript:toggleDisplay tag for More info text
Is there any harm in using javascript so a user can "toggle" open or closed additional text on a website? For example, if a user wants to read more about something, they can click on "More Info" and the text would then appear. Google is able to read the text, because I chose a random 8 word section of the text within the More Info and pasted it into a Google Search and the website showed up in search results. Just wondering if using this technique would have any negative impact. Here's what the code would look like:
Web Design | | EEE3
<a <span="">title</a><a <span="">="Show Tables" href="</a><a class=" " target="_blank">javascript:toggleDisplay('table1')</a>">More Info style="display: none;" id="table1"> this is where the text would be, and from this section was where I grabbed text to search with in google. Then in the footer, here is the script needed so the more info will work: I am by no means an expert in coding/html/javascript. Thanks!0 -
For A Corporation With 3 Distinct Business Divisions, Is It Better To Go With 1 Domain & 3 Sub-Domains, 1 Domain & 3 Folders, or 3 Domains for SEO Purposes?
Hi, I am working on a project right now for an existing client, we have one domain up and running well, they want to create an 'umbrella' site to cover three current business divisions and roll everything up under that main site, including the existing site on a totally different domain (would migrate over and 301 redirect from current domain). From what I've researched, I am inclined towards one main domain with three sub-domains due to the amount of content for each business division being significantly different enough that it seems to deserve separation from each other. However, in terms of SEO and maintaining consistent domain authority, would anyone recommend it be better to structure this as just folders/categories falling under the main domain instead of separate sub-domains for each division, and focus keyword targeting on pages tailored to that end within the main domain structure rather than spreading out link-juice to different sub-domains? Thanks!
Web Design | | Dan_InboundHorizons0 -
How will engines deal with duplicate head elements e.g. title or canonicals?
Obviously duplicate content is never a good thing...on separate URL's. Question is, how will the engines deal with duplicate meta tags on the same page. Example Head Tag: <title>Example Title - #1</title> <title>Example Title - #2</title> My assumption is that Google (and others) will take the first instance of the tag, such that "Example Title - #1" and canonical = "http://www.example.com" would be considered for ranking purposes while the others are disregarded. My assumption is based on how SE's deal with duplicate links on a page. Is this a correct assumption? We're building a CMS-like service that will allow our SEO team to change head tag content on the fly. The easiest solution, from a dev perspective, is to simply place new/updated content above the preexisting elements. I'm trying to validate/invalidate the approach. Thanks in advance.
Web Design | | PCampolo0 -
Using "#" anchors to display different content
If I have a page that has an area on the page that acts like a widget and has three different tabs. These tabs provide 3 different types of information relevant to the page subject matter. By default when someone goes to the page one of the tabs is showing but you have to click on the others to see the info on them. Is it OK to use domain.com/topic#TAB1, domain.com/topic#TAB2, domain.com/topic#TAB3 to create shortcut links so that people can land on the page and have that predetermined tab showing. I'm wondering what search engines might think. Essentially all the content of all three tabs is there for people to see but they'd have to click to see the other tabs. I don't consider the content to be hidden. But I'd like to hear people's thoughts.
Web Design | | Business.com0 -
Duplicat Content?start=1
I am currently trying to figure out how to fix this basically our subcategory pages are being flagged for duplicate content. Basically we have items listed on these pages and usually we show 12 items and users can click to go onto the next page of items. Here is an example of what I am seeing. I'm just not too sure on how I would go about fixing this... Thanks for any Help! http://www.example.com/Beer-Coolers-sz3193.htm?start=1 http://www.example.com/Beer-Coolers-sz3193.htm
Web Design | | MichealGooden0