Meta tags are an essential part of SEO Basics 101. However, some meta tags are WAY more important than others. This series of blog posts will teach you about what meta tags you should be taking advantage of- and which don’t matter much at all.
Part 4: The H1 Tag
Besides the title tag, the H1 tag is one of the most important places to put keywords in your website. Why? Google looks at your H1 tags, because it’s the top header on each webpage. That’s right- the H stands for ‘header.’ The text on each webpage that is formatted with H1 is what SEOs call your H1 tag.
Check your website’s source code. If each web page doesn’t have an H1 tag <H1> then you are missing a great opportunity to optimize your site with some keywords.
In your CSS sheet, you’ll see settings to format H1, H2, H3, etc. So, H1 is the 1st header, H2 is the 2nd header, and so on. Let’s look at an example. Here is a screen shot of my ‘About’ page. Note the flattering, dated picture (I’m blonde again everyone. Hurray!) Please also note: I outsource all graphic design. (Obviously.)
In platforms like WordPress and Joomla, you have the option to choose which text format applies to what copy in each webpage. If you’re doing the html yourself, the H1 tag will simply be between the <H1> and </H1> tags.
Naturally, (and to comply with Google standards,) the H1 formatting should be a larger font than H2, and H2 should be larger than H3, and most headers should be larger than your paragraph <p> font size.
Why? Google doesn’t want websites abusing H1 tags by making them smaller than the regular font and stuffing them with keywords irrelevant to the page- the header should clearly be what the page is about.
Rules for the H1 Tag:
1. Put the keyword or phrase in the beginning of the header.
2. Only use the H1 tag once per page.
3. If possible, try to use the same keyword that you used in your title tag in the H1 tag- a page with the same keywords in 2 places Google looks will improve your ranking more than if the keywords are different.
Next time in our SEO Basics series:
How to Write Optimized Content.
If you missed it or want to go back, check out the rest of our SEO Basics series on meta tags:
Interested in having some keyword research done to make the most of your website’s new tags? Contact Ad Astra!
POSTED: Friday, June 10, 2011.
