Solution Smith | Headlines (h1, h2, et al) for SEO

Part Of: Full Stack SEO Best Practices
Part Of: Tenured SEO
Published: 10-10-2024
by Wayne Smith

Headlines when used correctly are an evergreen algorithm for search engines to determine page relevance to a search term. It is an important enough factor that Google will use the element that has the role of the main headline as the title in search if the title is not relevant. However, headline tags have been misused, and incorrectly using headline tags will fail.

Headlines for marketing represent the first thing people are going to see and read when visiting a page. In some cases they may be the only thing read by the visitor; Who is deciding if the page has the information they are looking for.

... Using Headlines Correctly ...

A common misuse of headlines has been, and sometimes still is, to try to manipulate the search engines to be relevant to more topics without using additional text on the page, or using the headline tag as a generic text element on the page, putting all text content on the page as headlines, or using headlines as a list element.

This is wrong!

First, there should only be one h1 tag on the page. Although there have been discussions if each article tag can use an h1 tag; The headline tag is a semantic tag for screen readers and ARIA has not endorsed the usage of more than one main headline tag. Although a use case may exist; CSS has been used since Inktomi to discern which headline is the main headline ... size and placement and if the element is being used for the role of a headline, matter for evergreen SEO.

This is also wrong

Google and other search engines may still crawl and index a page with more than one title or h1 tag. The incorrect usage is spotted as soon as the bot attempts to parse the document and should be considered a technical SEO error.

This is correct!

The types of wine are a list. The headline allows the visitor to locate the list on the page by scanning the page. For evergreen SEO the relevant search keyword is "wine selection," and if h1 is the restaurant name, "restaurant wine selection," is the associated search keyword. Headline tags can bypass the keyword proximity algorithms that are part of other textual elements because headlines are siblings of the page outline or table of contents.

The role of headlines

The role of a headline is to provide information about the text that follows the headline. The text or lack of should be thought of as a co-factor, merlot is a type of wine, so a wine selection exists. People reading the page will scan for the keyword of interest and read the text for the information if the headline matches their intent.

The role does not depend on the internal tag on the page ... size and placement create the role. Inktomi pioneered using CSS to determine the size and placement of text on the page. That said, there is a crawl budget or investment search engines have to add sites to their index. Using headline tags is the most efficient, and having the search engine invest in fixing incorrect usage of tags isn't optimizing content.

Headlines role in creating a page outline or table of contents

The HTML headline tags were one of the first semantic HTML elements before the term semantic HTML became a thing. They originate in part for accessibility and non-visual browsing of the internet. One of the features provided by headline tags is to create a page outline. The page outline is read by screen readers for those who can not see the page and allows them to navigate to the section on the page that they are interested in.

It is a matter of course the tags are useful for determining what a page is about for search engines and evergreen SEO to include them for page optimization.

Headlines and Long Tail Search

There are several evergreen SEO algorithms and SEO tactics that enable a page to be relevant for long-tail searches.

Alternative keywords in headlines
Keyword proximity alone with word density or frequency
Off-page keyword shaping and supplemental content such as images, PDFs, or download links which are linked to from the page

Having additional keywords in the headlines, (qualified, of course, meaning they are also in the text under the headline), provides an early signal the page is relevant to the long tail. Keyword proximity may require the algorithm to specifically look at the page for both keywords existing as siblings in the same HTML block. Off-page keyword shaping requires a later-stage evaluation of the supplemental content.

For the following html snippet ...

<section>
<h2> Wine pairing </h2>
   <p> When pairing wine with food -- red wines are generally considered for spicy foods and white wines for milder foods.</p>

<h3> Merlot </h3>
   <img src="home-made-tariakie-sauce.jpg" 
        alt="Teriyaki sauce can be made with equal parts soy sauce, sugar, and a red wine such as merlot" 
        data-description="image is of teriyaki sauce ingredients with text caption homemade teriyaki sauce">
   <p> Merlot Can be pared with steak but it can also be pared with any food which may be seasoned with teriacky or soy sauce, which includes some seafood. 
   Shrimp scampy due to its peppery and garlicky sauce, pairs with merlot </p>

<h3> Chardonnay </h3>
   <p> Chardonnay has versatility when pairing -- Its buttery flavor works with any dish that can be considered buttery. 
   Tuna, salmon, and lobster are often dipped in a buttery sauce.</p>

<h3> Champains </h3>
   <p> Desserts characterized by sweetness are complemented by campaigns, although bitter desserts may be best with red wine.</p>

</section>

The long tails, "merlot wine pairing," "et al" are established once the page is indexed. The supplemental image aids when the image is considered and perhaps OCRed.

Off-page links to the page also shape or aid the page when the page qualifies for the keywords by on-page SEO.

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