Is <h1> Important?

[Licker4U]

How important is it to have a site title in h1 tags? I heard several years ago to to that but when I started using CSS I got away from it. Should I go back to putting the title in h1's? <h1>Title</h1>

[JackDaniel's]

<h1> header tags are important for search engine rankings!

A <h1> header tag has to be somewhere on the top of your site and you have to place your most important keyword(s) there. Think of an <h1> header tag as a title for the content you have on your page.

[virgohippy]

I've noticed that H1 tags don't have nearly the same effect as lots of other things - like back links and body text - but it's so easy to wrap <H1></H1> around a few key words the return/time ratio makes it very worth doing, IMO.

You can easily integrate header tags with css to make templates quick and easy to edit like this:

h1 {CSS_SETTINGS}
h2 {CSS_SETTINGS}
h3, h4 {CSS_SETTINGS}

[Licker4U]

Originally Posted by virgohippy

I've noticed that H1 tags don't have nearly the same effect as lots of other things - like back links and body text - but it's so easy to wrap <H1></H1> around a few key words the return/time ratio makes it very worth doing, IMO.

You can easily integrate header tags with css to make templates quick and easy to edit like this:

h1 {CSS_SETTINGS}
h2 {CSS_SETTINGS}
h3, h4 {CSS_SETTINGS}

Put that on an external style sheet?

[virgohippy]

Originally Posted by Licker4U

Put that on an external style sheet?

Tis how I do my freesites.

[Licker4U]

Originally Posted by virgohippy

Tis how I do my freesites.

I didn't know the effect would carry over from the external style sheet. Good to know, thanks!

[RB]

i hve read some times that this tags is important ofter meta tags. So it is some time better to use if your site offer this for you.

[Greenguy]

Honest question

There's h1 thru h6 (that's what Namo has anyway) Regardless of the SE implication, is the true correct way to use the tags to order the importance of areas on the page?

I'm trying to think of an example & the only thing I can come up with would be a news type page, where the pages had 6 different articles & you wanted to "rank" them according to importance.

(that make sense?)

[Licker4U]

I know the h's set the font size but don't know about "important areas".

[virgohippy]

Header tags set sizes but each browser interprets that size (and margin) differently. It's very annoying.

I use header tags as a way to organize concepts (or words) in an outline format. Like this:

H1. Main Subject

H2. Sub Topic

H3. Idea

H3. Idea

H2. Sub Topic

H3. Idea

H4. Detail in Minutia

H3. Idea

Don't know if that's right though.

[stuveltje]

Originally Posted by JackDaniel's

<h1> header tags are important for search engine rankings!

A <h1> header tag has to be somewhere on the top of your site and you have to place your most important keyword(s) there. Think of an <h1> header tag as a title for the content you have on your page.

yeah Jack is right, for seo pags thats important))) btw bottom too

[shunga]

I read on an SEO board that H1 doesn't have the importance that it used to through overuse, and that H2 and below are regarded more highly by SE's. I don't know what the experience here on that is.

[Greenguy]

Originally Posted by virgohippy

...Don't know if that's right though.

Right or not, it does make sense

[LowryBigwood]

IMHO I would say that the Header Tags are helpful for all se's, but importance would vary depending on the search engine itself. For example, I would guess that Yahoo! puts more importance on the H1 tag than Google does.

On using H1 through H6, if I use that many header tags on one page... I would pick 6 keyword phrases or variations of 3 main kw phrases to use and then put most important in h1, 2nd most important in h2, and so on. I don't think page position matters for your Header Tags, but that is another guess. Of course, this may not be the right way and your results may be different, but it is what I do.