For a long time, the importance of H1 tags within SEO content structure has been discussed. However, some controversy arose some time ago due to a supposed statement by Google, claiming that H tags are neither relevant nor necessary. In this article, you'll learn from experts Blas Giffuni and Camilo Ramírez about H1 tags and their importance in SEO.
Let's start with the basics: what are H1 tags?
At the HTML level, H tags, known as heading tags, indicate the hierarchy under which web content is organized. They range from H1 to H6, each with descending importance, with H1 being the most significant and considered the main title of web content. To illustrate with a common example: when reading a chapter of a book, we notice that it starts with a large and striking title, which can also be divided into subtitles and further subdivisions. This is what is denominated at the code level as H1, H2, H3, H4, among others.
URL: Uniform Resource Locator, is the unique and specific address assigned to each of the resources available on the internet so that they can be located by the browser and users.
SEO Title or META TITLES: A tag that presents and summarizes the main theme of a page within the search engine results page. This SEO title allows search engine algorithms to determine if the content of a page is relevant or not to the search intent.
H1 tag: A tag used to identify the phrases that make up the main title of the content of a web page.
Three key elements for SEO within a web content unit: URL, SEO Title or Meta Titles, and H1 tags.
What is the purpose of the H1 tag?
The H1 tag tells Google what a certain page is about. Therefore, it is suggested or recommended to only use H1 to establish the main theme, use H2 for secondary topics, and H3 for subtopics within secondary topics. This way, a hierarchy of information can be established. Additionally, it is advisable not to use beyond H4. However, sometimes people use this structure not to inform the search engine about the content of a page or to indicate the hierarchy of information, but solely for graphic and visual purposes. Blas Giffuni, a self-proclaimed SEO purist, recommends using H tags for titles, subtitles, and subcategories.
Can the URL, SEO title, and H1 tag be exactly the same? What is the best practice?
Some people believe or affirm that the keyword or key phrase on which they want to work on a specific page should be included in the URL, SEO title, and H1 tag. They are correct. If one creates the content of a page with the purpose of being found by users through a keyword, it is then essential to mention that keyword. However, despite it being recommended to use the main keyword in all three elements, it is a good practice to differentiate the SEO title from the H1 title, as this will simply facilitate the search engine's work. In other words, the meta title can be modified by search engines, so when writing it, we should try to give the search engine as little work as possible by indicating exactly what we want users to see on the results page. The H1 title can often be written in a catchy and interesting way but not necessarily explaining from scratch what will be communicated on that page. Thus, we can play with the H1 title. Therefore, we can be creative with the H1 and make it catchy and interesting, while being a bit more technical and precise with the meta title.
What criteria should be considered when creating a good H1 title?
Historically, the H1 tag is the title located in the header of the page, and the main criterion for its writing is to explain what a page's content is about, considering the user experience, and making it attractive so that the audience wants to read the rest of the content. Keep in mind that the H1 is the first thing a user will read when arriving at a certain web page, so the main objective of that title should be to engage and capture the reader's attention in a few seconds so that they want to continue reading.
Controversy over Google's statements about H tags:
The commotion generated by Google's statements regarding H1 tags, in which they stated that these were not truly relevant for indexing web pages, caused confusion among some SEO experts. Particularly for Google, H tags are not relevant because they have the ability, through machine learning, artificial intelligence, and other technologies, to review the content of web pages, validate the contextual part, analyze the corpus, and, according to the structure and hierarchy of the information, identify what is a title within said information.
However, this does not mean that not including titles, subtitles, and categories within content is a good writing practice on the web, nor does it mean that all search engines have the same technological capabilities as Google to analyze texts. For example, Bing Webmasters have reported that for Bing, having multiple H1s is a problem because the way they analyze content is different from Google's, and therefore, it is important for them to have a main H1.
Beyond search engines: user-centered content for a good SEO strategy:
The main thing is to consider whether the way web content is presented is user-friendly and facilitates readability. Let's take the case of people with disabilities or impairments, for example, people with reduced vision or blindness use a different browser that handles screen readers and indicates which information is a title and which is not, what is a subtitle and what is a subcategory of a subtitle.
This information is collected through H1, H2, H3, and H4 tags. If we say, "oh, Google doesn't care about H tags", we are making Google happy but not making users happy. Therefore, the great conclusion or moral is that one of the objectives of SEO should be to write content for people and not for robots. That is, writing using a suitable, convenient, compatible, and user-friendly format with how humans read, considering that we are accustomed to certain narrative structures and logical sequences.
We hope this article has taught you about what H tags are and the relevance of H1 titles. Likewise, about the importance of writing web content with the user experience in mind.
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