SEO H1 Tags Best Practices

Do H1 Tags Matter For SEO?

Any SEO professional would agree that your main heading is your webpage's most important text. Your main heading is one of the main things that tells Google about your webpage. H1 tags not only matter for SEO but are one of the main aspects of crafting an effective SEO strategy. No matter what your webpage is about, your H1 tag should be the primary keyword your page is targeting. If you get your H1 tag wrong, your website cannot rank, period. We over here at Spirra Digital cannot stress enough how important it is to conduct thorough and quality keyword research before landing on the most effective keyword for your heading.

The best heading will tell Google what the page is about and will be very easily read by your users. It will benefit you very little to have an optimized heading that doesn't read very well to your users because they will be more likely to leave the page.

What Is An H1 Tag?

As stated in the section above, an H1 tag's purpose is to tell Google about what type of content your webpage offers. 

Heading tags are a system of hierarchy used by websites to judge the importance of your content. An H1 tag is a heading tag. The "H" in H1 stands for heading. The "1" in H1 indicates the level of the heading. You also have H2, H3, H4, and H5 tags. The lower the number, the more importance Google will attribute to the following content. 

The point of heading tags comes in establishing a hierarchy of information. Google doesn't just reward any webpage with high rankings. You not only have to have great, relevant content that is effectively optimized, but you also have to structure that content appropriately. Heading tags are one of the many tools at a web designer's disposal to ensure all information on a page is structured effectively. 

How Many H1 Tags Do I Need For SEO?

H1 tags are unlike any other heading tag. You should only have one H1. You can have more than one technically, but it is a best practice only to have one. Having one H1 ensures Google can more easily determine the intent of your webpage. With other heading tags, however, you can have as many as you need to create quality content. As long as your heading tags are properly structured, it doesn't matter how many there are. 

H2 tags should separate each section of the webpage, H3 tags should separate each section within a section, and so on.

H1 Tag Vs. Title Tag

A common misunderstanding is that a heading and a title tag are the same things. However, they are quite different, as you'll soon discover.

H1 Tag

H1 tags are the most crucial heading of your webpage. They are placed at the top of your webpage. They will let Google and your users know the webpage's topic. 

Title Tag

Title tags are what you read in the SERP (search engine results page). When you type in something in Google, the main title of each result is the title tag. Some SEOs swear you should make your H1 tag and your title tag the same, while others do not. From my experience, I feel they should not be the same at all. Your title tag should be captivating and enticing for your potential users to read. It should draw them in, while your main heading should only be your main keyword, and that's it.

How Do I Optimize Heading Tags For SEO?

Once you research which keywords make the most sense for your webpage, you will understand which keyword belongs in the H1. Your primary keyword will be the keyword with the least difficulty and the highest volume. It will have the least competition and the largest number of people searching for it each month. It might make sense to determine these numbers using a third-party software program like Semrush or Ahrefs or even a free one like Google's keyword planner.

Once you understand your webpage's intended intent and know what you want your page to be about, you can quickly determine which keywords make the most sense. 

For example: if you have a landing page where you plan to sell a product, you wouldn't want to waste your time optimizing for a keyword that doesn't have commercial intent. By this, I mean you do not want to waste time optimizing your product landing pages for keywords people search for when they do not intend to buy anything. You want to optimize for keywords people search for when they plan to buy products like yours. Optimizing for the proper keywords with the appropriate intent will help ensure your metrics trend correctly.

How Long Should An H1 Be?

The length of your H1 is also essential. Ideally, you keep your H1 short and sweet. If you can craft a solid and appealing H1 in 10 characters, do it. You want to keep your H1 less than 70 characters. However, because you're following our advice and are just using your primary keyword as your H1, you shouldn't ever have any issues staying below the 70-character limit.

Overview

If you've made it this far, you understand how significant your H1 tag truly is to the success of your webpage. Keep an eye out for future articles giving you more tips on using SEO to boost your website in the SERPs. If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy some of our other articles, such as the benefits of local SEO. We also have an article walking you through everything you need to balance when executing your own SEO strategy.