What is the Importance of Heading Tags for SEO?

Heading tags are HTML tags used to identify headings and subheadings within your content from other types of text (e.g., paragraph text).

The most important heading tag is the h1 tag, and the least important is the h6 tag. In HTML coding, the heading tags from h1 to h6 form a top-down hierarchy. This means that if you skip any of the tag numbers, the heading structure will be broken, which is not ideal for on-page SEO.

Headings help users and search engines read and understand text. For example, they act as signposts for the readers and make it easier for them to figure out what a post or page is about. Headings also define which parts of your content are important and show how they’re interconnected. Here, we’ll give you pointers on how to think about headers and use them to improve your content.

The usage of heading tags these days is a source of some debate. While H2-H6 tags are considered not as important to search engines, proper usage of H1 tag has been emphasized in many industry studies. Apart from that, clumsy usage of H1s may keep a site from major rankings and traffic improvements.

Utilizing the heading tags certainly adds to the architecture of the content.

• For search engines, it’s easier to read and understand well-organized content than to crawl through structural issues.

• For users, headings are like anchors in a wall of text, navigating them through the page and making it easier to digest.

Both of these factors raise the importance of careful optimization, where small details add up to the big SEO- and user-friendly picture and can lead to ranking increases.

Why Use Headings?

Show text structure

Headings are signposts that guide readers through an article. Therefore, they should indicate what a section or a paragraph is about. Otherwise, people won’t know what to expect.

Readers like to scan content to get an idea of what the text is about and to decide which sections of the text they’re going to read. Headings help them do that. Scanning the text becomes significantly harder for your readers when it doesn’t contain any headings. It’s even worse when you add long stretches of text after a heading.

For web copy, it’s good practice to make sure that your headings are informative to the reader. Some people like to tease their audience in the headings, trying to entice them to read further. While that can work very well, it’s easy to get it wrong. Remember that the main focus of headings should be on the content, and the primary purpose should be to make the text easier to read and understand.

Also, keep the following two things in mind: first, a paragraph should start with a core sentence and then elaborate on this core sentence. When restructuring your text to add a heading, make sure the first sentence of your paragraph contains the essential information for that paragraph. Then, consider how the information is structured in your paragraphs, what the relationship is between paragraphs, and how a subheading can help make that information easier to digest.

Improve accessibility

Heading structure is important for accessibility as well, especially for people who can’t easily read from a screen. Because headings are in HTML, a screen reader can understand the article structure and read them out loud.

By reading or listening to the headings in an article, visually impaired people can decide whether or not to read it. Also, screen readers offer shortcuts to jump from one heading to the next, so they are used for navigation as well.

Improve SEO

It’s generally agreed that how you use headings doesn’t specifically impact your SEO. Making minor tweaks to individual headings likely won’t help your performance. However, there are indirect benefits. Using headings creates texts of higher quality that are also easier to read. A better text is better for users, which is better for your SEO.

If visitors can’t quickly find what they’re looking for, they’ll probably leave your site and look for another answer to their query. This is why text structure and heading use also impact SEO. Search engines pick up on people bouncing from your site. When you have a high bounce rate, search engines can conclude that your page doesn’t give searchers what they’re looking for. Consequently, you might get lower ratings.

With headings, you should always put the user first. Use them to add structure and signposts to your content and to describe what each section is about. If your headings let users know what your article is about, they’ll help Google understand, too.

How to Write HTML Headers for SEO

The way you write your headers and subheads depends on which HTML header tag you’re talking about.

• Put the h1 tags at the top of your page (of course).

• Use the words people would use when searching for what your content is about.

• If you’re targeting a question, put the question in the h1 tag.

• If you’re writing a how-to guide, put each step in an h2 tag.

• For non-how-to articles, use LSI keywords and other semantically related words in your h2-h6 tags. This helps reinforce topical relevance and removes ambiguity.

Those third and fourth points are very important when trying to claim one of Google’s featured snippets for your site. Featured snippets rely on Google’s ability to determine what page best answers a question. Structuring your content to make it more readable is a big part of that.

Things you Shouldn't be doing with Heading Tags

• Do not stuff your heading tags with keywords.

• Do not use more than one h1 tag on a page. Usually, pages will have a single h1 heading, and including two might make search engines think this is an attempt to include more keywords for SEO in multiple h1 tags. It is better to divide the content into two separate topics on individual pages with their own h1 tags. This makes more sense to both readers and the search engine spiders; however, using multiple h1 tags is allowed.

• Do not use heading tags as hidden text. Any hidden text can result in penalties for your site, especially if the hidden part is a component that affects SEO.

• Do not repeat heading tags on different pages of your site. It is a good practice to have unique heading tags throughout your site. Avoid using identical content for both your page’s h1 tag and meta title tag.

• Do not use heading tags for styling text; use them for presenting organized and structured content on pages. Use CSS stylesheets for the purpose of styling.

To get the most out of your on-page strategy, don’t neglect the small tweaks that add up to the big picture.

As of now, some tags are still must-haves as they make up the taxonomy of your page; others are not vital but can let you be one rich snippet ahead of competitors who just didn’t bother.

Small changes that improve the user experience and help search engines understand your site better will be appreciated by both sides and will definitely pay off in the long run.

If you are looking for an SEO expert to help you with your digital campaign, Go4Global is here for you. We have in-house SEO specialists and experts ready to optimize your website for different search engines. Our SEO strategy will help your company reach a wider audience and help you reach the peak of success. If you are ready to be noticed online, contact us now! Call +1 (747) 283-4767, or email us at go4globaldesign@gmail.com or fill out our contact form at https://go4globaldesign.com/contact-us.