Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
I wanted to ask if it is ok to have two H1 tags on the same page.
E.g. <H1>Build Red Widgets With Machines</H1>
<H1>The Best Way to Create Widgets</H1>
Maybe it can be as the above or maybe the second one can specified to be a little smaller in font size than the first H1 tag but there are still two.
I wanted to ask what your guys experience has been with this? How does Google view this? Sometimes, I feel that it may take more than one phrase to say what a page is about.
You should have a clearly defined one <H1> header tag on each page saying to the reader, and to the search engines, "This is the primary subject of this page". Chose the primary search phrase of each page you are targeting.
It is important the keyword is present in the very first heading tag on the page regardless of its type. If the keyword is also used as a first word, you will raise its prominence.
There are standard rules for the structure of HTML pages. They are written in a document-like fashion. In a document, you start with the title, then a major heading that usually describes the main purpose of the section. Subheadings highlight the key points of each subsection. Many search engines rank the words found in headings higher than the words found in the text of the document. Some search engines incorporate keywords by looking at all the heading tags on a page.
And don't try to stuff to stuff your heading tag with many or irrelevant to the page content keywords.
Having multiple <h1> tags may now actually be subject to a penalty by the search engines, and is seen in the same light as "keyword stuffing".
You can certainly have multiple headlines appearing on a page, like <h2>,<h3>, e.t.c., for instance for sub-sections. But make sure that they are following a hierarchical order.
To be specific, the <h1> should be the first heading tag, followed by the <h2>, then the <h3>, and so on.
All that said, wWhat Matt Cutts is saying, has nothing to do with professional web site development.
Having multiple <h1> tags may now actually be subject to a penalty by the search engines, and is seen in the same light as "keyword stuffing".
I wouldn't be too quick to state that as fact. I don't think that is the case. If the page is structured logically in sections and each section has its own <h1>, it is valid and best practice if you are following HTML 5 Specifications. I've been reading all that I can on this since that video was launched and Matt has it right. If you look at a page as "sections", each with its own <h1> and subsequent <h> elements, everything changes. ;)
...if you are following HTML 5 Specifications....
There was a presentation about HTML 5 at PubCon in Las Vegas, and a lot of us were scratching our heads about the multiple <h1> elements.
In part, the traditionally simple relationship with the title element gets changed, and that perhaps changes the concept of the page as the basic unit of optimization.
In part, the traditionally simple relationship with the title element gets changed, and that perhaps changes the concept of the page as the basic unit of optimization.
Not if you think of the <title> as being the <h0>. And then all <h1>s are of course a cascade of the <h0> and allow the page to be further refined. Instead of one section preceded by an <h1>, now you have multiple sections all preceded by <h1>, each being treated as their own block of content under the <h0>. That should make things confusing, huh? I'll help! ;)
There was a presentation about HTML 5 at PubCon in Las Vegas, and a lot of us were scratching our heads about the multiple <h1> elements.
I would've scratched me head too had I not been familiar with <section></section> in the HTML 5 Spec.
HTML 5 W3C Working Draft - 4.4.10 Headings and sections
[w3.org...]
The first element of heading content in an element of sectioning content represents the header for that section. Subsequent headers of equal or higher rank start new (implied) sections, headers of lower rank start implied subsections that are part of the previous one. In both cases, the element represents the header of the implied section.
"h1 - h2 - h3 and so on", is the order of <h> tags, if I use
"h1 - h3 - h4 - h2" will their be any problem
In part, the traditionally simple relationship with the title element gets changed, and that perhaps changes the concept of the page as the basic unit of optimization.
Not if you think of the <title> as being the <h0>. And then all <h1>s are of course a cascade of the <h0> and allow the page to be further refined. Instead of one section preceded by an <h1>, now you have multiple sections all preceded by <h1>, each being treated as their own block of content under the <h0>
@raj1094
Think of Hx scheme as nested elements, where the "closing" of a nested element is automically implied by the opening of higher element.
H1-H3-H4-H2 is a bit nonsensical as there is no H2 in the first set.
OTOH, this would be fine (if a bit long and probably unfocussed):
H1-H2-H3-H3-H2-H3-H4-H2-H3-H4
"h1 - h3 - h4 - h2" will their be any problem
No Google problem, but clearly there is a hierarchy misfit of some kind. Are you thinking of the H tags according to how they look on screen?
