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The Importance of H1 Header Tags for SEO & Your Search Rankings

The H1 header is known to be one of the most important SEO elements on any individual page of a website.

Headers (H1’s, H2’s, etc.) are pieces of HTML code that allow you to make certain words stand out on your page. To understand how headers work on a site, let’s consider a magazine or newspaper. The title of the article is usually larger and more pronounced than other words. It may be colored, bolded, underlined, or have some other type of format quality that makes a header pop out. Whatever the case, this allows you to scan a page, and pick out the sections you want to read. An H1 header tag is similar. The H1 header tag is usually the largest text on a page and serves as the main title for that page’s content.

As algorithm updates continue to emerge, several on and off-page elements, experience changes in their influence as a ranking factor. Some search engine optimization trends leave an imprint, while other SEO movements start to fade away. As far as H1s are concerned, H1 header tags haven’t lost their magic because H1s improve a website’s SEO tremendously.

The Importance Of An H1 Header for SEO

Why is an H1 header tag so important? Header tags continue to play a significant role in structuring content for both SEO and user experience (UX). Heading tags are necessary for both the usability and SEO of your web page. Search engines primarily take keywords from content, heading tags, and titles to develop the context of a web page. Header tags should make sense to the reader. If your visitors understand the header on your page, the search engine will likely be able to do so as well. If you adopt these best practices for your h1 header tags, your click-through rate should rise accordingly.

H1 for SEO - Example

Implementing H1 Header Tags On A Website

Your may already be using H1 header tags on your site without even realizing it. If your site is already using a content management system, (CMS), it will automatically create tags & enter them in based on the content you have entered.

For future reference, we’ve provided a basic guideline on how to add H1s to your website, and what to look out for when actively adding header tags to your page:

  • Add H1s To Every Page: All pages on your site should include an H1, and the header should appear only once at the top of the page. An H1 is known as the HTML tag that is used to display the main heading of a web page.
  • Make Each H1 Unique: Should every page have a unique H1? Absolutely! All of your web pages should have unique page headings because every page should contain unique content. Make sure your H1 explains directly what the page is all about.
  • Insert Keywords In Your Header: Search engines pay close attention to the keywords in your H1 header. Google bots expect keywords to cover the web page’s main topics. Avoid keywords that are irrelevant to the content of the page.

Crawling & Indexing Headers

Search engines like Google use search engine spiders to rebuild or index websites, and the spiders especially pay close attention to the content wrapped in H1 header tags. Crawling can operate based on several other indicators including PageRank, the number of pages, the size of content, and crawling restraints such as the number of parameters in a URL.


H1 Header Tags Have A High Impact On SEO

We hope that this guide gives you a better understanding of how H1s work, and how to use H1s for maximum impact on your future marketing campaign. Headers have high importance for your site’s content, traffic, and search rankings. With an H1 optimized for the 2017 SEO landscape, you will be providing a positive experience to your users and still receive the added benefit of improved positioning in search engine results.

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