Using headings correctly on your web page can drastically improve your website’s chances of ranking well in search engines. Headings are implemented in HTML as tags and range from H1 to H6.
The use of headings in a document is standard practice – even before the Internet was around. Structurally, headings are considered crucial because they break down the contents of a page into easily digestible portions. This aids a reader to better comprehend a document and therefore achieve a greater understanding. Headings should contain enough information to give the reader an overview of the content in each section. The first heading in an HTML web document is known as an h1 tag and should describe the document’s content. Headings can range from the h1 tag to a depth of h6.
From an SEO perspective the h1 tag is important because it signals the theme of a page to search engines. The h1 tag is one of the three main references web crawlers use to index content in search results, so getting this element right could yield considerable benefit for your website.
Difference between headings and titles
Although both have some common meanings, the h1 tag is not to be confused with the title tag, which is the actual name of the document and is viewed as separate to the general flow of body text. Both are important because the title and h1 tag, plus the body contents of a web document are used by spiders to index the page in search engines. The more descriptive and relevant these elements are to the user query, the better chance your site will have of ranking higher in the results.
There must be only one h1 tag per page. It must be keyword rich and as descriptive as possible. The h1 tag should feature the targeted term and indicate how it applies to the rest of the document.
By acting on this one HTML element, it will improve the way search engines see your website. Similar action with all other elements will drastically improve things so it’s well worth the effort.
