Heading Tags, SEO, and Google: Why Headings Still Matter
Google and other search engines are smart – and getting smarter. In an age when artificial intelligence can scan thousands of gigabytes of data in a fraction of a second, what’s the purpose of heading tags on web pages? HTML header tags are still important for SEO and for making content skimmable, accessible, and digestible for human audiences, too.
Here’s a quick look at heading tags, SEO, and how header hierarchy impacts organic performance and improves the user experience.
What Are Headings and Subheadings, Anyway?
Headings have been used in print for centuries, initially to make it easier to study the Bible. They’ve played an increasingly important role in the much more recent (relatively speaking) transition from paper and ink to digital formats.
Today, as always, headings and their small sibling, the subheadings, help organize information for the reader and help them scan and decide what to read. Today, they also help search engines.
Headings for Humans: Writing for Your Audience
Google has always recommended creating “people-first content,” and headings are just as valuable to humans as they are to search engines. Headings guide readers through the page in several ways.
Structure
Headers and subheaders establish a clean, logical, and consistent structure for the web page. Headings create digestible sections that consolidate valuable information for the reader.
Readability (and Skimmability)
Most internet users don’t read; they skim. Using concise but descriptive headings makes it easier for users to quickly find the information they need. Skimming is such an ingrained behavior on the web that it serves as the basis of most SERP features: for example, the featured snippet, which replicates the act of skimming a reputable, informative page and providing the desired answer.
Another benefit of using headers; it makes blocks of text less intimidating. Web pages without headings look dense – even if they have the same word count as a page with just a few headings tossed in.
SEO Headings: Writing for Search Engines
There’s also value in using headings for SEO. In the early days of the internet, search engines relied heavily on header tags to rank pages on the SERP, which led to many SEOs targeting keywords in headers to improve position for important terms.
Today, heading tags don’t play as large a role in search algorithms, which use thousands of additional signals to organize content. That doesn’t mean website heading styles don’t impact organic results, though!
What Is a Header Tag?
In SEO, header tags are snippets of HTML that tell internet browsers how to display a section of text on a page. HTML header tags relay both the style and relevant importance of that header to search engines, too, which means it’s important to use them correctly when publishing content.
SEO Headings Best Practices
Heading tags are still important for humans and search engines. Smart SEOs use heading tags consistently and follow heading hierarchy to make on-page content easier to crawl.
Here are a few tips for using header tags effectively throughout your website …
1. Use a predictable header hierarchy.
Google expects header tags to follow a consistent, sequential pattern. This means starting with an H1 (sometimes called the page title in certain content management systems [CMS]) and organizing content with H2, H3, and H4 tags. Think of using H2s and other subheaders to dive into the details of a specific topic amidst a broader topic.
Here’s an example header hierarchy from one of our blogs:
- H1 – How Different Pricing Strategies Work (And How to Choose the Right One)
- H2 – First, What Is Price Strategy?
- H2 – How to Set a Price for a Product or Service: Getting Started
- H3 – Price Strategy vs. Place Strategy: The Difference
- H2 – The Five Most Common Types of Pricing Strategy
- H3 – 1. Cost-plus Pricing Strategy
- H4 – Cost-plus Pricing Pros and Cons
- H3 – 2. Competitive Pricing Strategy
- H4 – Competitive Pricing Advantages and Disadvantages
…and so on. Any H2 with an H3 and H4 focus on a specific topic, while the next H2 transitions into a new concept.
2. Use only a single H1.
The H1 carries the most weight of any heading and should describe the big idea or topic of the page. Try to target the most important terms in your H1 without cramming unnatural or unnecessary keywords. Try to keep your H1 under 60 characters, although there isn’t an official or technical limit.
3. Don’t use header tags and heading styles interchangeably.
Not all text should be headers, especially if it’s a word or phrase used throughout your site. This reduces the organic value of that word or phrase for search engines crawling your website. Technically, heading styles are a unique combination of font, size, and color, but they aren’t necessarily tagged as a heading case.
In other words, they look like other headings but don’t use the actual header tag (<h3>). For example, use a header style for your call-to-action block (Ex. “Contact Our Team Today”) that doesn’t have an H3 tag. Your development team can help make these changes – or ours can!
Do Headings Matter in SEO? Absolutely!
When it comes to SEO, heading structure is one of the marginal gains that add up to impressive results. At Oneupweb, headers are one of several elements we include during content creation and optimization.
Want to see what nearly 30 years of digital marketing experience – including SEO and content marketing – can do for your organization? Contact Oneupweb or call (231) 922-9977 today to get started!
