Blog SEO Tip #7: Heading tags
Heading tags (H1 through to H6) are given more weight by search engines than regular body copy. So they should be used wisely to reinforce the page's overall keyword theme. The posting date should never be within an H1 tag, because you're NOT trying to rank well in the engines for a date. Instead, wrap an H1 tag around your category name or tag name on your category page or tag page, respectively. Then make the titles of your blog posts H2 tags, so that on a category or tag page, the category/tag words can be the only H1 on the page and thus can convey greater emphasis than the post titles.
You could even take this idea a step further and make the post title display within an H1 tag if it's a Sticky post, and within an H2 if a normal post. (See my last post for more on the benefits of Sticky posts for SEO.) Check out this example category page on BusinessBlogConsulting.com where I did just that.
5 comments, 4 pingbacks
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[...] Use Heading tags Heading tags (H1 through to H6) are given more weight by search engines than regular body copy. So use them to reinforce the page’s overall keyword theme. Don’t make the date an H1 tag, instead make the current category name or tag name on your category page/tag page an H1 tag. Make the titles of your blog posts H2 tags. More on this here. [...]
Pingback by More Blog Search Engine Optimization Tips and Tricks : Business Blog Consulting [Visitor] — 02/27/06 @ 22:52
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[...] 1:Heading Optimization Hacks Do you guys know that heading tags are given more importance by search engines than regular body text.So try to focus more on your heading tags for search engine optimization.Don’t make the date an H1 tag, instead make the current category name or tag name on your category page/tag page an H1 tag. Make the titles of your blog posts H2 tags.A post about the importance of heading tagsBlog SEO Tip #7: Heading tags [...]
Pingback by Blog Search Engine Optimization Hacks « Blog Buzz [Visitor] — 12/28/06 @ 21:38
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[...] Here are some useful links on the matter. H1, H2, H3 Placement, per W3C standards Highrankings.com Jan 2006 How important are the “H1″ in SE optimization and why? Highrankings.com Jan 2007 Importance Of Headings And Sub Headings In Optimizing Pages? cre8asiteforums.com July 2006 How Important are H1 (Header)Tags seoroundtable.com August 2005 Search Engine Ranking Factors SEOmoz.com Date unknown Blog SEO Tip #7: Heading tags Stephan Spencer.com Feb 2006 What Attribute Ranks Better Bold or H1 On A Page? seoroundtable.com March 2005 Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
Pingback by Secrets of the H1 tag revealed | Cornwallseo.com [Visitor] — 02/16/07 @ 06:37
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Thanks for the tips Stephan, I do enjoy them.
;)Comment by Scott Benjamin [Visitor]
· http://www.scott-benjamin.com —
03/07/07 @ 02:58
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Can you give any advice, what tag is better to use for date of posts? In code, date goes before posts headings.
Thanks.Comment by kost [Visitor]
· http://reg.kost.ru/ —
04/13/07 @ 13:54
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[...] Blog SEO Tip #7: Heading tags - Scattering [...]
Pingback by Wordpress SEO: Optimize your Wordpress theme headings (h1, h2, h3) | fiLi’s tech [Visitor] — 04/15/07 @ 10:52
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Hi SEO Leader person,
On my website I noticed that I was using H2 in stead of H1 tags for a heading. Does this mean Google will place less of a priority on my H2 content as their are no H1 tags?
Should I go and convert the code to use H1?Comment by Elton [Visitor]
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04/16/07 @ 15:28
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Hi Elton,
H1 tags are better than H2. So I'd say it's worth doing the conversion. But don't expect life-changing results out of it.Comment by Stephan Spencer [Member]
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04/19/07 @ 23:09
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Thanks for the info. I'm trying to add these tags to my website, but it will mess with all my css. Could there still be a way to add the tags without disturbing any of the current css?
Comment by Jacob Images [Visitor]
· http://www.jacobmaentz.com —
07/17/08 @ 16:58
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