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.
“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:
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?
Thanks Harsh for sharing the importance of Head Tags in SEO, I am a new blogger and searching for good information to boost my website ranking. Your Blog is really inspiration for me.
we have to use H1 and it is followed by H2 and then H3. But it is not mandatory to use all 6 heading right?
no, it is not.
I learned something new today. Thank you very much.
Before reading this article i have some confusion about using of Heading in posts. but after reading this article now i am clear that how we have to use headings for better SEO…. thnx for posting an imfomatic article sir….
I usually use heading tags but never new few of the things you have mentioned here. Thanks
I only use h1 and h2 tag and very rarely h3. Thanks for this wonderful post.
Although we do mention H6 as part of the Header tag family is it really useful? Since the font size decreases with each passing header tag. For example H1 is the biggest and H6 would be tiny.
I have 2 doubts, Please help me,
1) If I skip H1 Tag(leave head title field empty) and using an H2 tag as title, Will Google consider it as Blackhat?
2) Use of more than 5 H2 tag without having an H1 tag, Is it a good practice?
Don’t do this. It’s not good practice. Your content title by default is H1 tag.
2nd thing more 2 H2 tags in a content also bad. Using 1 H2 tag is good in content. Even you can use 2 H2 tags for the purpose of your content more easy to read. But don’t use 3,4,5 H2 tags.
Thanks for sharing useful information about heading tag because this is very useful for SEO beginners and who they think heading tag is not useful.
Hi Harsh,
Good to be here after a while,
This is really a new thing to me H1 to H6
I used to concentrate the only H1 to H3
Hey, again I am confused by reading some of the remarks in the comment section about its usage, there are chances to penalize by Google by the over usage of this activity,
Would like to hear from you Harsh on this.
Thanks For sharing
In fact, I curated this post in some of my IM social sites
Keep sharing.
Best regards
~ Philip
Amazing information, does it work properly for the micro-niche as well?
@Baljeet
yes
I normally use 1 H1 tag as title,, 1 H2 tag as secondary and couple of h3 tags as paragraph/topic title and some h4 (if needed any).
OMG….. I ignored these heading tags before because no one tell me about these heading tags limitation and importance.. I thought these are only for improve site designing look. thanks for share this important my weakness. now I will check heading tags in my sites all pages.
Harsh Sir, Thanks for your great article about heading tags seo. Reading it I found that all of my titles are in h2 tags. Now I am going to solve it. Thanks.
Really, this post is very useful info . I have using some heading in my website . But after reading this tutorial I learn many new information
Hey Dipankar,
Glad I could help. Let me know how the tips work out for you. I look forward to hearing more from you!
Before reading this article I randomly use the h2,h3 and h4 tages. Now I will make sure that I will use the proper tag at proper place. i am happy to you
Very Well Explained. The post will help me insert heading tags in a good manner. Thanks for this information 😀
Hey,
I am just using blindly my heading without proper hierarchy from H1 to H2 since i do not the importance .Now i should make sure to draft my content with proper heading tags.
Thank you for valuable information sharing to LYSEISMKT and to my favorite SML.com
your post is good,
tell me that if I convert all my H2 and H3 tags into H1 tags,then what will be disadvantage or advantage.
Don’t try to do this. Otherwise Google will penalize your website. Use Only one H1 tag per post/page (Post title). Use other subheading in H2 & H3
Yes robin you’re right.
how much H1 Tag can we use in one post??
You can only use one h1 tag per page.