The Summary of Discussion 2: To Optimize h1 h2 h3 Header Tags Crowe I know this is a super basic question … But, this is a question I have debated with others for years! I am curious to get feedback from others … How many H2's do you include on a page? Should you always rule for just one H2? When, if ever would you have more? Or, does it really not matter? If you feel like sharing – I would also be curious to know how you utilize other headlines in regard to structure: do you always use them in order? Do you ever skip – for example: H2, then H4 (skipping H3) … For ether of these – what logic do you use for the process you use? Have you seen success or losses one way or another? [filtered from 20 💬🗨]
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Mew 👑 Hey Krystal, What kind of a page? Service page, location page, blog, article? Etc? Can you give me some input before I address this as it can and should vary for each. 👍🏽1
Crowe✍️ » Mew actually I was working on a service page when the question was prompted. But, my question was more general … so now you’ve added another question- is it different for different types of content? Most of the time this would be referencing general content pages or service pages. Mew 👑 » Crowe As always the answer is yes and no, and it depends lol. Your question really delves into semantic understanding of crawlers and what works best for them when they crawl your page in a top to bottom fashion (cascading style). I could talk about this subject all day but here’s some guidance when it comes to this. 1.) Because pages are read top to bottom, H tags help delineate the importance of each section and heading to the relevance of the topic. 2.) In general your H tags will vary between blogs and services pages, as service pages tend to have a main topic, and blogs use close variants or topics that are similar to one another. Example: a local service page for the keyword “hot water heater repair” isn’t going to have vary many topics in it. That’s generally what the page is about and what people are searching – pretty straight forward. Now if you write a blog about the top 10 cell phones, your H2’s might be the different cell phones by manufacturer themselves. Herein lies the difference between the two. 3.) H3’s are rarely ever needed semantically and anything beyond that, I have almost never used. I personally use H3’s for related keywords that I have written other pages for, as anchor text. This lets Google know that this H3’s is SIMILAR to the H2 and H1 but you’re only providing limited information on the matter and to reference another page for an actual page or document about the H3’s subject. Example would be: H1 = top 10 cars H2 = Honda Accord H3’s = Recalls on Honda Accords (directed to another page for full info with brief description on page about the H3). 4.) YES! The order and priority does matter and should be H1-H6, as this is how careers determine topical priority. Will it make or break your SEO? Heck no. There’s way too many other factors at play, but in general it’s just good practice and will give you a small push on the right direction. There really is no hard and fast rule to headings but semantically the structure outlined above is what can make them so incredibly powerful to search engine optimization (SEO). When you use them to communicate what they were created and intended for. Does this make sense? Let me know if not and I can elaborate. PS this is a semantic understanding applied to SEO. As always test test test 👍🏽💟🤯18 Jordan » Mew Cool reply. Re this: "I personally use H3’s for related keywords that I have written other pages for, as anchor text." <– do you literally wrap the H3 in an A tag? E.G., <a href="url"><h3>Recalls on Honda Accords</h3></a> (and then write a brief description under the H3…?) 👍🏽1 Mew 👑 » Jordan – Yes sir, I do…As Seen here for a local plumber.
💟1 Jordan Cool! Cheers fella, appreciate the clarification 👌
Johnny I learned about this when I was studying web design. Allot of new people don't understand the industry practice. Page structure is fundamental web design and has a standard practice that SEO is based on. Read this book. You don't have to do everything this book says but it allows you to understand the industries practices that SEO does not teach. And you'll know allot more than the average person. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/head-first-web/9780596157722/👍🏽4 Johnny If you can read the HTML and CSS book too. It will help you greatly. You don't need to read it to learn how to code, even though it can he fun. You just need to read it to learn how a machine processes a website and all the mechanics of how it works https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/head-first-html/9781449324469/ Head First HTML and CSS, 2nd Edition 👍🏽2 Phil_Drinkwater This is my view, at least for informational content: https://phildrinkwater.com/content-optimisation-in-seo/ The h2’s should cover all of the relevant elements that make up the h1 / page title. phildrinkwater.COM Content optimisation in SEO – what to include | Phil_Drinkwater 👍🏽💟6
Crowe✍️ » Phil_Drinkwater thank you… I enjoyed reading this article. I am curious though, if you don't mind me asking – are you spelling the word "optimization" incorrectly with an s, on purpose? Whats the thought process behind it? Phil_Drinkwater » Crowe that’s the British spelling 😉 💟1 Crowe✍️ » Phil_Drinkwater wellllll that makes sense, forgive me. I am slow sometimes. 🙂 Thanks again for sharing – I also just shared it with a writer I am working with who is newer to SEO I think it will serve as a nice resource for her. Phil_Drinkwater » Crowe Haha it's fine. I found it amusing 😉 Awesome! I'm actually working on paid and very professional video course called "SEO for copywriters". I don't know if she'd be interested? It'll be about $99 .. and goes into WAY more depth. If you think she'd be interested, feel free to pass her my email phil@phildrinkwater.com and ask her to email me and I'll send her a link once it's done. 💟1
Crowe✍️ Thank you everyone for the responses! I wanted to think on this over night as the conversation created more questions, or thoughts … I do understand that there are gray, squiggly lines baked into everything – but hearing the different perspectives is super helpful. (Mew, I could talk on this all day, too) 1) What are your thoughts on using classes around headlines to style them differently on a page? Can it be over-done? Are certain uses ever frowned upon? Examples may include: * adding multiple H2's to a page, each wrapped in a different class to align with the design better? * in contrast, having multiple lines of text with the class of H2, but not set as a headline at all. 2) Is it accurate to say a single page should never have more than one H1? 3) Should the H1 always be the first words on a page? Here is a scenario: Is it frowned upon to have a headline with a H1 class on a banner, followed by a H1 with an H2 class? 4) Should there always be some level of content after a H2? For example: thoughts on having an H2 that is followed by a few words – then another H2. Would that be harmful in that there isn't much content supporting the term being used in the H2 5) Are there any thoughts on over-using H2's on a page? In contrast, would it not be wise to only use one H2 on a page? 6) Mew when you add anchor text to H3s, do you always link to a page that is only about that specific headline? Should the H1 on the linked page reflect the same keywords? Have you experienced better success with using H3s with anchor text over applying the anchor text to a words within a paragraph? 7) I am curious about how all this could be applied back to Google's ability to understand intent. Bare with me – I am struggling to find the words… Mew , the example you used above is: H1 = top 10 cars H2 = Honda Accord H3’s = Recalls on Honda Accords (directed to another page for full info with brief description on page about the H3). In this example – you use top 10 cars as the H1, followed by Honda Accord. Since the H2 does not use "cars" or "top 10" … How do you know Google can make that connection between the type of car to the H1? I would assume it is because we know Google is smart enough to make the connection. But, then I'd apply the same question to the relationship between the H2 and H3: Why is it necessary to use "Honda Accord" in the H3, but not necessary to use "cars" in the H2. If you can assume Google understands the intent of the H2 and how it is related to the H1, wouldn't it be safe to assume the H3 could be "Recalls" and it's relationship to the H2 above it would be connected in that it's talking about the "recalls" for "Honda accord"? For this last question – I do want to mention I understand the logic. A common piece of feedback I hear from clients is that they worry we use the keywords too often. So, with this example – over-using the word "Honda accord" … This is an area I can talk myself in circles. At what point do we stop optimizing for the word, but rather focus more on the topic … Or, in other words – optimizing for the modifiers within various search queries?
Mew 👑 » Crowe – I will answer this in complete depth when I get to a computer. As far as Google understanding that a Honda Accord is a car, refer to this image. Google has made the entity connection (an entity is a noun) that a Honda Accord’s top level machine learned ID is a car or vehicle. More to come I promise! Let’s clear the air on these questions once and for all using Google as our resource and logical deduction through understanding of HTML and crawlers, as this is semantics applied to SEO, not semantics of SEO 🙂 👍🏽1
The Summary of Discussion 1: To Optimize h1 h2 h3 Header Tags Fahad Hi SEO Masterminds, I want to ask some basic questions regarding H1-H2-H3 Tags in Blog posts. 1. Should my H1 start with exact targeting Keyword? Or it's okay if its in a sentence or phrase. 2. How many time should we use H2 Tags? Does they have to be exactly relevant to our Topic or Subject, I mean with H1? 3. Many says using too many H2 or H3 can divert your content if they do not represent your H1 or keyword. 4. How important H tags are ? I will be glad to see all experts opinion on it. Thanks 🙂 [11 💬🗨]
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Harjot It depends upon the content of your blog. Ex your title should be always your H1. You can use H2 as many times as required. For example, if your blog has 5 advantages of your topic, the advantage title should be H2 and vice versa 👍🏽1
Fahad ✍️ all good, what if those Advantages Title do not carry any of my keyword or the topic name from my H1. So does that count as irrelevant topic (h2) for google? Harjot » Fahad Its recommend to add at least one of your keyword for better ranking. 👍🏽1
Mike Heading tags are not all that important anymore. Google has gotten pretty good at understanding headings just by the formatting on the page, whether the H tags are there or not. To answer your questions… I would make your H1 tag the title of the article or page. If that is an exact match to your primary keyword, that's fine. If it is a sentence that includes the keyword, that is fine too. You can use as many H2 tags as you need to. Not sure what you mean about them having to be exactly relevant to the subject. Obviously, they should flow in the article or page appropriately. I wouldn't write an article about correcting a slice in your golf swing and then have a heading of "How to paint a fence". 👍🏽1
Fahad ✍️ Thanks for the reply mike, its helpful. What I meant by relevancy is finding keyword or synonyms of my title and keyword. For example: If my article is about a process of LED lights installation and (LED lights installation) could be my Keyword. So if there is a Heading : Don’t Forget To Scan The QR Code it does not carry anything related to my title or keyword. So if i use H2 tag here, what will be the impact. Mike » Fahad There really won't be an impact.
Delah 1xh1 (preferably with the keyword you're trying to target) any subsequent headings are h2s If there's a need to explain something additional in the content proceeding the h2. I use a h3 tag. I.e. Recipe for Banana Bread – H1 Ingredients – H2 Banana – H3 Flour – H3 etc 👍🏽1
Fahad ✍️ » Delah thanks a lot
Anuj H1,H2,H3 shall contain keyword. 👍🏽1 Malhi Dude…if you include keyword in h1 and h2 and h3 and h4., hahaha… Sure recipe for over optimization penalty…I bet if your article gets ranked doing so🤣 What matters is the hierarchy you use …is it correct or not…if u want u may use exact keyword in h1 or h2 but use Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) in other headings which are relevant to topic and in contextual relevancy or co occurrence… No of times you use h depends upon the depth of your article…u can use h2 h3 multiple times 👍🏽1
Fahad ✍️ » Malhi thanks. That's what I was also saying that it might has to be relevant with the topic or keyword but not copying the keyword exactly.
