How to Use Header Tags (H1-H3) Like a Boss

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Introduction to H1 – H3 HTML Elements

Header tags may not be the most important asset to your website, but they definitely are useful. If header tags are used properly they can help boost your SEO and attract more users to your site. You can make content more attractive and easier to read by properly placing header tags throughout your website. There is no point in skipping over this simple, yet very useful strategy while thinking about SEO. Creating a proper header tag is easy and will help optimize your content. In this article, I will show you how to use H1 – H3 HTML elements properly.

What is a header tag?

A header tag usually refers to the title of a post or the other text that is highlighted on a page. Header tags tend to be the largest text on the page that easily stands out. According to a Yoast article,

“Heading tags, as the name implies, are tags that are used for the creations of headings. The most important tag is the heading tag, and will usually be the title of a post. Heading tags have a top-down hierarchy from to.”

Typically, there should be one H1 heading, a couple of H2 headings, and so on. The H1 is your heading, H2 is your subheading to H1, and your H3 is your subheading to H2. All of these header tags should be used together to create an outline of your post. You can structure your header tags differently if you would like to by adding multiple H1 tags to a single document rather than just one.

Some experts believe that you should only use one H1 tag, but you actually can use as many as you’d like. In this video, Google Webmasters explains you should use more than one H1 on a page. If you want to know more useful tips on how to use H1 – H3 elements properly and most effectively, continue reading this article.

Use header tags as text blocks

One of the most important techniques to optimize your website’s searches is to organize your content into readable text blocks. This is one of the most underrated SEO strategies considering most people scan articles, rather than reading every word it contains. Documents that have elements of scannability are more attractive and have a greater chance of actually being read and shared across the internet. Shareability will increase your website’s ranking and will help land new users. You should never overlook this strategy when thinking about your headers. Readers usually tend to enjoy an article that is well-organized and separated by text blocks.

Use keywords in header tags

This tip may not seem super important, but it will definitely help you when considering useful SEO strategies for your website. Anything that Google looks at is important, so why skip out on this step? Keywords are used to gather information for your page, so you should absolutely include them. The most important thing about this step is that you do not want to stuff your keyword all throughout your article. You must make sure that your keywords flow within the content, and that they are not crammed into the article. Moving away from stuffing and focusing more on keyword density is something to strongly consider. 

Make sure your header tags are consistent

It is important to think about consistency for your website. You never want to jump from one theme to another, instead, you should use one consistent theme throughout your site. You should also consider using one format for your headers that are the same for all articles. It is easier for Google to detect your headings if they are consistent in length and words. You will want to keep your header tags short and simple, which will be more attractive for your visitors, and keep them coming back to your website. You should also add anchor texts into your headers to provide Google more information to categorize your website. For more advice on anchor texts, please refer to Imprint Digital Agency’s blog post.

Use creative header tags

It is smart to use short and simple header tags for your website, but that doesn’t mean they have to be boring. Make sure your header tags are creative, but still get the point across. Visitors are more likely to click if they see an interesting title, rather than one that is the same as every other article. You want to be creative and separate yourself from others, and this brings the perfect opportunity to attract users. You must make sure that header tag covers what is being searched for, but do not be scared to get a bit creative.

Things to consider

When creating your own website or writing your own articles, there are many things you should consider. You should ask yourself things like “how many H1 tags should I use?” or “do my header tags go along with my article?” You must pay attention to your content and make sure your tags will help with SEO. To be successful, you should stay on top of all SEO trends including header tags. I hope this helped you learn how to use H1 – H3 HTML elements properly.

References:

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