Why H1 Tag is Very Important for SEO

  • 4 years ago
What is an H1 tag?


The H1 HTML tag is the first header tag visible on a page. It is used for the title of a page or post.

To make the text stand out, the H1 tag is usually formatted differently than the rest of the page tags.

Look at the example.
The easier way to understand the use of the H1 tag is to imagine that you are writing an outline of a large document. The main title of your document will be your H1, your main points the H2 and sub-points the H3

H1 Tag Vs Page Title

One of the most important elements for SEO purposes is the title tag title title and should not be confused with the H1 tag.
Let’s see below how these two differ and why you should care.
The main differences between the two are:
The title tag is shown in the SERPS (search engine result pages). It is used as the main heading of the snippet in the search results.

The title tag is a strong signal to search engine crawlers on what the page content is all about.

When it comes to on-page SEO, the page title is more important than the H1 tag but for best results, you should optimize both.

Why is an H1 tag important for SEO?
One of the most complicated tasks of search engines is to understand the meaning (context) of a page.
To be able to do that in the most efficient and fastest way, they use data from different signals.
One of those signals is the page title and another one is the H1 Tag.
When crawling the content of a page, search engine spiders read the HTML code and they try to identify which sentences are enclosed in heading tags (h1, h2, etc.).
They consider these as indicative of the page content.
So, by using keywords in your H1 tag, you help search engines understand what your page is all about.
Another reason why headings are important for SEO is that they make it easier for users to navigate through the page.
The user can see at a glance what the page is all about by looking at the H1 tag. The rest of the headings provide a big hint to users as to what to expect in each section.
H1 Tag SEO Best Practices
Now that the theory of h1 tags is behind us, let’s see how to write good headings for your articles or page content in general.
The H1 tag should be the same or slightly different than the page title
Use keywords in your headings
Avoid very long headings
Make sure that your H1 tag is visible and not hidden to users
Style your H1 tag differently than the rest of the headings
Use headings in a hierarchical manner
Use only one h1 tag per page
H1 tags should match the user intent
The H1 tag should be the same or slightly different than the page title
In the majority of cases, the page title and h1 tag are the same. This is because CMS (like WordPress), are configured this way.
This is perfectly fine. It’s not an SEO mistake, to have the same text for the page title and h1 heading, on the contrary it is recommended.
As a general guideline, keep the page title and H1 tag the same or closely related. Google recommends the following:
• Place the title of your article i