SEO Fundamentals: Header Tags

A flower that represents SEO with the text "Header Tags" beneath it.

A brief guide describing the minimum SEO requirements for headings and how header tags should be used within a webpage.

The following article discusses the minimum SEO requirements for headings (i.e. h1 - h6) as well as the correct way to use header tags within a structured layout.

These details are based on years of research and the work of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Minimum SEO Requirements: 1 H1, Minimum 1 H2

A screenshot of Chrome showing the Mozbar chrome extension reading the SEO Fundamentals metadata webpage. The mozbar shows how we use 1 H1 tag and more than 1 H2 tag.

Each webpage should have:

1 H1 heading which should be around 60 characters in length (i.e. 0 or 2+ H1's are a violation of SEO fundamentals).
At least 1 H2 heading, each of which should be 70 characters in length or less.

Please consult the guides below to learn how to write good headings.

Headings Rank

A screenshot of W3C that shows the correct way to structure H1-H6 headings. You should never place a H1 below a H2 - or as the World Wide Web consortium puts it "Skipping heading ranks can be confusing and should be avoided where possible: Make sure that a <code><h2></code> is <strong>not</strong> followed directly by an <code><h4></code>, for example. It is ok to skip ranks when closing subsections, for instance, a <code><h2></code> beginning a new section, can follow an <code><h4></code> as it closes the previous section."

"Nest headings by their rank (or level). The most important heading has the rank 1 (<h1>), the least important heading rank 6 (<h6>). Headings with an equal or higher rank start a new section, headings with a lower rank start new subsections that are part of the higher ranked section.

Skipping heading ranks can be confusing and should be avoided where possible: Make sure that a <h2> is not followed directly by an <h4>, for example. It is ok to skip ranks when closing subsections, for instance, a <h2> beginning a new section, can follow an <h4> as it closes the previous section."

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SEO Fundamentals: Header Tags

A brief guide describing the minimum SEO requirements for headings and how header tags should be used within a webpage.

Minimum SEO Requirements: 1 H1, Minimum 1 H2

Headings Rank

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