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...
-
Ah ok, so generally I wouldn't suggest making any forced H1, H2 changes through php. Because, now all of your H1s will be affected (if I'm reading this right), which you don't want to happen.
Also if your issue before was having multiple H1 tags before, you'll now have multiple H2's. What CMS are you working in? Did you have multiple H1s before due to styling reasons (ex. Wordpress)?
If the header font style is what you were bothered with, modifying the css to reflect similarity across headers would work great. Then use the headers as you normally would.
Lastly, this should not affect your rankings that dramatically. I would look at your website analysis, backlink profile and see if any big on-site content changes were made.
-Hope this helps-
-
Hi Britney, thanks for for response on this.
This all gets quite complicated for my 'non-developer brain' but I'll try to explain how we've done it...
A .php file was used to define the structure of the product listings on our brand pages, so rather than amend every page my developer inserted some code, using a new class to overwrite some of the the h2 tags:
if(isset($modlet->h1)){?>
expandText($modlet->h1);?>
and replicated the h1 style for this class in the styles.css document.
I've checked the source as rendered in a browser and where the h1 tag should be the h2 tag appears, as expected.
Thank you for the suggestions, I'll look into these and let you know how I get on.
-
Agree with Matt, this drastic of a swing isn't likely due to changing your H1, H2s in CSS.
Can you please clarify "used the css to overwrite the secondary headings as h2 tags." ?
Lots of people use multiple H1s or H2s on a page due to formatting reasons. They like the way all of the H2s look (font size, weight, font, etc.) but the best way to go about this is to make custom CSS changes that modify ALL Header tags to look the same. This way you can use proper H1, H2, H3, H4, etc. and it won't look like a wonky cascading sub-title issue.
Some things to check regarding your ranking:
1. Google Search Console for server & index issues
2. Dropped 301s
3. New spammy backlinks
4. Any search console warnings
-
You know, what—I looked into this a bit more, and you actually might be right about what caused this. Let me get you some more help.
-
Hi Matt, thanks for your response.
I've not carried out any competitor analysis on this, what sort of thing should I be looking for?
-
That strikes me as a pretty massive change in rankings for a simple on-page change. Even a site-wide one, like that. Have you run any analysis on your competitors to see if anything they did might be to blame?
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
-
With Google's new Speed Update, what does that mean for AMP pages?
Hey everyone! I wanted to get the other Mozzers opinions on this. With Google announcing a new Speed Update that will affect mobile rankings, I wanted to ask: How will AMP pages play into this? Let me know what you think!
Web Design | | TaylorRHawkins
Thanks!2 -
Is placing an H1 tag below a slideshow a bad practice?
Hello All, It is to my understanding that it is a best practice to have a single H1 headline that corresponds to your title tag at the top of your page, above your content for the best On-Site Optimization. We are developing a site that uses a big slideshow with text on each slide, and are concerned that placing the H1 Headline below this will be a bad practice. Would a better option be to have the slide show text on the image and place no alt tags on the slides, so that the crawlers accessing the page overlook this and see the H1 below the slider first? We need to maintain the slider for design purposes, but would like the site to optimized. A similar example to what the slider will look like is as follows: http://www.boviskyle.com/ However, we look to have optimized, "10x" content below the slider with a solid H1 headline as well. Thank You!
Web Design | | Armen-SEO0 -
Dealing with the impending Google mobile compliance update - is bMobilized any good as a temporary measure?
We've been caught a bit off guard with the upcoming Google mobile compliance issue and received the warnings in webmasters about fixing mobile usability issues. It will still be some time before we can have the site re-coded as responsive. I have stumbled upon a converter tool (which turns any site into one that's mobile friendly) called bMobilized, which essentially turns your site into one that's mobile friendly. Have you used bMobilized? Is it a safe idea to use this service temporarily until our new responsive site is ready in a few months? Do you have any suggestions for temporarily getting around the mobile compliance issue while our new responsive site is being built? Thanks
Web Design | | Martin_S0 -
Can't Hyperlink After the WP 4.0 Update?
Anyone else who runs a WP site have problems hyperlinking after the 4.0 update? I read I could deactivate all my plugins, and go through them one-by-one, but before I go to that step, I want to know if there's either an easier way to regain this functionality or if there is a specific plugin that's known to cause the problem. Thanks, Ruben
Web Design | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Does using role="heading" instead of H1 in HTML code affects SEO?
Does using role="heading" instead of affect SEO? http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/wiki/Headings_using_role%3Dheading
Web Design | | LNEseo0 -
Did i got hit from some google updates.
Hello everybody, i got a problem and i hope someone can clear it up for me. my root domain authority is 42 and home page is 52 (jumped there only yesterday) ,while my google page rank is still PR2 (same for 3 month already). 1 month ago i changed my home page design (not the text) and since then my home page just disappeared from the search engines. can somebody look on my website www.kspiercing.com , and tell me if i got hit by some panda ,koala,penguin or some other sweet Google animal . thank you very much.
Web Design | | kspiercing0 -
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
Web Design | | KellysTutorials0 -
Alternatives to Wordpress for updating content of a static html site
I have a static html site which I cannot update myself. What solutions/ programs would you recommend for gaining the ability to update it myself? I'm reluctant to switch to WordPress because the sites that use any CMS that are hosted by my web hosting company get routinely hacked. Thank you!
Web Design | | translate0