The Importance of H1 Tags in SEO
The H1 tag is the reader-facing title of virtually every webpage on the internet. In addition to telling search engine algorithms what your page’s content is most likely about, it also helps humans navigate through a webpage quickly and easily.
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Google considers user experience a primary goal in its algorithm, and H1 tags are an important way to convey this. Using an H1 that is clear and straightforward, as well as being the largest and most prominent heading on the page, will ensure that readers have an idea of what they’re about to read before even navigating the rest of the content on the page.
SEO experts believe that H1s are the most essential headings on a webpage, and should be used in a consistent manner across all pages of your website. Keeping a hierarchy of H1s will make it easier for users to navigate through your site and will improve the quality of your search engine results.
When writing H1s, you should make sure that they include your most important keyword as this will help the page rank for it in the search engines. Additionally, H1s should be relevant to the topic of your page and should be written with your customer in mind so that they can understand exactly what they will be getting from the information that you’re providing them.
Your H1 should be a single sentence that’s between 20 and 70 characters long. If it is too long, Google will think you’re trying to manipulate the algorithm and penalize your site for this.
The best way to check if you’ve used an H1 is by using your web browser’s inspector tool. To do this, simply highlight the section of text that you want to be your H1 and click “Inspect.” If there’s no H1 on the page, you should see an X in the inspector window.
A good H1 can help your website get ranked high in the search engines and give people a good first impression of your company. It will tell the user what you’re about and help them decide whether they’re ready to engage with your content or not.
You can use multiple H1 tags, but only as many as you need to illustrate the different topics of your page. This isn’t a bad thing, but don’t go crazy with it; multiple H1s can be confusing to the search engines and your visitors.
If you have more than one H1 on your page, then you can use a nested section> element for each H1 that’s within the main section> to create the appropriate heading hierarchy. Generally speaking, this will work for all modern browsers and is not something that Google would consider harmful to your page’s SEO.
Another advantage of using a hierarchy of H1s is that it will make it easier for those who are blind or have vision impairment to navigate your website. Hundreds of millions of people use screen readers to access the web, and having a good hierarchy of H1s can be helpful for them as it makes it easier for them to follow the structure of your page and know what they’re getting from it.