Heading Tags SEO: Tips for Using H1 to H6 Right Way

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Heading Tags SEO
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As we know, heading tags are imperative for every web document to structure the content. By using Heading Tags, we differentiate our web page content. Use heading tags for headings only not for making Text Large or Bold.  

Note: At the end of the article I have outlined 2 common heading tags mistakes by bloggers. Don’t miss reading it!

Definition of Heading Tags

Heading Tags are well-defined by W3Schools that:

<h1> to <h6> tags are used to define Heading on a web document.

Heading tags references
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“According to W3Schools – <h1> </h1> is the first heading which is critical for any web document and <h6></h6> is the least important heading that holds very less importance in a web document as compared to other heading tags. ”

Defined Heading Tags are:

<h1>some text here</h1>

<h2> some text here </h2>

<h3> some text here </h3>

<h4> some text here </h4>

<h5> some text here </h5>

<h6> some text here </h6>

h1 tag should be main headings which if followed by further h2, h3 and so on. The h1 is usually the boldest one whereas h6 font size is smallest.

Don’t get confuse yourself and stop thinking that Heading Tags as merely formatting for the web pages and Search Engines Heading Tags are for just categorization of content on web page.

Heading Tags come with various attributes to make user-friendly websites but Search Engines use these defined headings solely to index the structure and content of web documents including blog posts.

In other words, you can say that Heading Tags are used to show the web document structure.

Here is what John Muller of Google has to say about using heading tags on your site:

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How to use Heading Tags for SEO?

Apart from the web designing point of view, there are a few more things that you should know about Heading Tags.

– Purpose of using Heading Tags

The main purpose of categorizing your content with different headings so that your design become more user-friendly and people will get a notion about your website more easily by just reading the Sub-headings.

Now we know H1 tag is most important tag so whenever you going to use it for your webpage heading just try to make it like that people get an idea about your website just reading your heading. So that h1 tag should be in that way which describes everything about your web page just in one shot.

– Hierarchy

Hierarchy on your web page should be like <h1> comes first which is followed by <h2>, <h2> followed by <h3>, <h3> followed by <h4>, <h4> followed by <h5> and <h5> followed by <h6>.  For better SEO of your web page, one should have to follow the hierarchy in this way.

– Headings Tags with Keywords

Keywords are first and foremost priority of any SEO Expert. In the matter, we first do the research of best keywords according to the web page and then categorize these keywords into focus keyword, primary keyword, secondary keyword and tertiary keyword. Focus Keyword is always one for the web page. It’s better to include your focus keyword into the title, Meta tags, and h1 of the webpage.

– Frequency of Using the Heading Tags especially h1 tag

It is recommended that one should have to use h1 tag per web page because h1 tag should be like a newspaper heading and other content should be structured with subheadings by following the hierarchy of heading tags. Using of subheadings depend on the way your content is structured.

H1 Tag In Latest HTML5

In the previous versions of HTML, only one H1 tag is allowed to designers to use per web document and what people do that time – they just used H1 tag to wrap the business logo on the web page which is important for any business web page and start the main heading of the web page with the H2 tag. But with the help of updated version of Html i.e. HTML5 which allows the designer to have multiple h1 tags on a web page according to the requirements of the web page design.

Ex: Single page websites.

Well, Heading tags are crucial for the proper On page SEO of your blog posts. One mistake which is common among newbie bloggers is excessive use of H2 or H3 tags & at times skipping H2 tags & only using H3 tags.

This kind of practice is not good & might hamper your On-page SEO score. To learn more about On-Page SEO, read this guide.

Do let me know your learning & understanding about Heading tags for SEO. How do you use Heading tags & why?

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Authored By
Editorial Staff at ShoutMeLoud is a team of writers led by Harsh Agrawal.

49 thoughts on “Heading Tags SEO: Tips for Using H1 to H6 Right Way”

  1. Kevin Blythe

    Very informative and important blog. I also use only one h1 tag for every page and h2 and h3 as needed. Thank you.

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