Using Heading Tags for SEO

We’ve had a number of inquiries about using heading tags lately, so we thought we would highlight a few tips when incoporating the use of heading tags into your page content.  The purpose of a heading tag is to provide an indication as to the outline of a page.  Typically your most important content should be found higher up on the page, thus the H1 tag becomes important for the title of this content.  Use <h1> for your top-level headings.  Use only one <h1> heading tag per page. 

The heading tags consist of six elements: H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 header elements

The proper format for heading tags  in essence would look something like this: 

Main Heading – use <h1> tag

Sub-Heading 1 - use <h2> tags

Sub-Heading 2- use <h2> tags

Sub-Heading 3 - use <h2> tags

     Sub-Category 3.1 – use <h3> tags

     Sub-Category 3.2 – use <h3> tags

          Sub-Category 3.2.1 – use <h4> tags

          Sub-Category 3.2.2 – use <h4> tags

          Sub-Category 3.2.3 – use <h4> tags

Sub-Heading 4 – use <h2> tags

We have had questions such as, "Can you have more than one <h2> tag on the page?"  The answer is yes as seen in the example above.  Can you have the <h2> tag appear before the <h1> tag.  The answer is yes this is possible, but why would you?  Are you suggesting that this content is more important than that of the <h1>?  Again when using heading tags the purpose is to provide an outline of the page.  It is meant to work with the <h1> and down from there.  Remember, you do not want to get too spammy with the use of heading tags.  Avoid overuse of heading tags and improve the site experience for your users on your website.