TL; DR: Website headings have some influence on pages when it comes to ranking in Google in 2020. If you are a new to the world of web design and development, or as a client who wants to approach this simply, stick to one ‘H1’ on the page, and make the rest of the text headings ‘H2’.
Write naturally with keywords in Headings if relevant.
Avoid keyword stuffing and take note that, ‘Each piece of duplication in your on-page SEO strategy is ***at best*** wasted opportunity.’
Simple handling of Heading (H) tags is often more manageable than ‘optimal’ and a lot easier to achieve with most of the benefits, and there is often no exact way to treat any specific SEO element in every instance.
If you have a website and would like to optimise your web documents for SEO, it is crucial for you to get your H1 and H2 heading tags right. Proper Use of H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 heading elements is essential for highlighting the content within your web document.
Primarily, SEO heading tags are HTML elements that denote various sections of your content.
Initially, H1 tags SEO were primarily used whereas the H2 tags SEO were used lesser in comparison. However, with content saturating the internet, questions of how many H1 tags per page, how many H2 tags per page arose.
This led to the use of alternatives to H1 and H2 heading tags i.e. H3, H4, H5, and H6. This article will discuss in detail about the heading tags and how they should be used for SEO.
We’ll go in to a more detailed explanation below of how we handle headings from H1 to H6 on a web page, and why we only use 1 H1 on a normal web page unless we are specifically asked to do something different.
What Are Headings?
The main purpose of heading tags is to deliver content in a reader-friendly format.
Categorisation by means of different heading styles would enable the reader to follow the flow of the article and understand it better. An outlined format would also help in easy retrieval of content.
The H1 and H2 heading tags will be your webpage’s main points for focus. They are the first things that users will notice about your page and hence have to be appropriate and relevant.
In most web documents, there are more H2 tags, and fewer H3, H4 tags. H5 and H6 heading tags would be very rare.
It is preferred not to go deep into short web documents, as it would lead to disorganisation and misdirection from your content’s objective. For longer documents, apart from H1 and H2 heading tags, H3 and H4 sub-heading tags are needed.
Using Website Headings for SEO
Using keywords, the right way is the first lesson in SEO. Once you have a list of potential keywords, you will have to categorise them into four categories, focus, primary, secondary, and tertiary.
The Focus Keyword is the most important of them all and can only be used once. For this reason, the focus keyword is included in the titles, H1 and H2 heading tags, preferably the H1 Tags SEO. They are also included in the Meta descriptions for search engines.
Frequency of Website Headings
The frequency of your heading tags cannot be compromised upon. It is important to maintain the structure of your elements to ensure that your content has a solid backbone.
Use only H1 heading tag for a webpage. You can use multiple subheadings in the form of H2, H3 subheadings as per your needs to structure your document.
Your SEO for ideal search engine result position revolves around the way you use your H1 and H2 heading tags, primarily your H1.
Incorporating the keywords that appear in your content into your title too will enable you to rank higher and attract a better audience.
The Heading Tag Structure Is As Follows:
- < H1 Tag for the Headline of the post that followed by text >
- < H2 Tag for the sub-heading of the first subsection followed by text >
- < H3 Tag as a sub-sub-heading for the first section followed by text >
- < Either a H4 Tag for the sub-heading for the previous sub-heading >
In most web documents, there are more H2 tags, and fewer H3, H4 tags. H5 and H6 heading tags would be very rare.
It is preferred not to go deep into short web documents, as it would lead to disorganisation and misdirection from your content’s objective.
For longer documents, apart from H1 and H2 heading tags, H3 and H4 sub-heading tags are needed.
How many times to use H1
Most businesses should look to use their business name or tagline within H1 tags.
For this reason, HTML5 offers the liberty of having multiple H1 tags on the same web page design. This feature was not available in previous versions of HTML.
Google has advanced its search parameters with semantic search with Google Hummingbird.
With semantic search, google can interpret your meaning by the use of your words instead of just plain addition of an out of context word as a keyword. Hummingbird will identify the intention of the phrase you use and relate it to a keyword.
With Hummingbird in place, you can use a longer key phrase instead of a short keyword in the headline to better optimise with Google’s search engine algorithm.
This intensifies the need to use better H1 heading tags for your content and make them count.
How many times to use H2
For levels beneath the H1 title tag, you will have to use H2 and following tags. H2 heading elements are used the most among the other five heading tags.
Follow with H2, H3 heading tags after you are done with H1 for titles. Do not skip tags, as your document will lose its structure and start to clutter.
If you use an important keyword in your H3, H4 heading instead of your H2, search engine bots will give it lesser importance. H2 heading tags can be used for subtitles with detail information, whereas the H3 or H4 levels can be used for lists with bullet pointing.
For SEO, heading tags other than H1 and H2 heading tags, search engines do not signify them. They can be used for deeply research content wherein content compartmentalisation is necessary.
Conclusion
For efficient SEO, it is important that you follow the hierarchy with H1 and H2 heading tags and use consistent formatting.
Proper Use of H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 heading elements offers your content a pattern that can be followed by the reader easily.
