What are header tags?
Header tags are used to separate different sections of content on a webpage. To webmasters these headers are known at HTML header tags, head tags, heading tags and SEO header tags. The header tags range from h1 to h6, with the h1 tag being the most important and h6 being the least important.
Sometimes people think that using the header tag option is great for changing the look and style of content, however these are for logical SEO purposes. Be sure you use the headers correctly so you gain the SEO advantages when search engines crawl your content. Below is how the coding should look:
<h1>Main Heading</h1>
<h2>Secondary Heading 1</h2>
<h3>Sub-section of the secondary heading 1</h3>
Advantages of using header tags for SEO
- Be sure your content to your header tags is relevant. Search engines crawl the relevancy of the content following a tag
- Keywords consistency is rewarded.
- H1 tags are the most important and should not be skipped
- H tags organize content on a page making reading easier for users. Search engines notice the user-experience on a page.
Advantages of using header tags for users/readers
- Easy to navigate the sections of the content
- H1 tag gives the overview of what the entire content is about
- Other H tags allow readers to scan the pages and know what the rest of the article consists of
What not to do with header tags
- Don’t keyword stuff your H tags
- Only use one H1 tag to not confuse search engines and mislead them of keyword stuffing
- Don’t repeat H tags on other pages
- Don’t use your H1 tag as your meta title and vice versa
- Don’t use these H tags are styling options
- Don’t jump for H1 to H3 tag
Can’t think of an H6 tag?
- Just because you have H1 thru H5 tags does not mean you need an H6 tag!
By Giovanna DaPrato