Is an H1 Tag Important?
Opinions Differ; Your Customer May Expect It
Depending on who you ask, the H1 tag is either very important or not essential at all. In 2009, Jill Whalen famously called the H1 Tag a “boondoggle” but others in the SEO community still advise using it. Whether or not the tag is necessary, you may open your SEO skills up to amateur criticism if you do not have such a tag on the site, and anyone who is trying to take your client’s business is going to point out the lack of such a tag on the site. Some search engine optimization companies will at least address the issue up front by saying that they are not necessary for rankings, so the customer at least knows that they were considered.
Just because you “may not” need to have such a tag, there aren’t many people saying that H1 tags are bad for rankings. Since SEO is all about making a lot of small changes to a website, H1 tags may provide that extra little piece of content that the page was missing for better search engine consideration. They also help define the subject matter, and they make a useful guide for later editing if your site is being launched with minimal content that is expected to be added in the growth process.
What is an H1 Tag?
How Do I Put An H1 Tag On My Site?
Adding a tag is easy, you just put in h1 (inside the less than/greater than signs, as this site editor does not like HTML markup on the page) before and after the main phrase you want heading the body content.
How Do I Change The Font Size of An H1 Tag?
If you place a header tag on your site without alteration, you are going to look like one of those crazy conspiracy theorists with a free website and an axe to grind, because the font on the tag will be large and obtrusive. You can either change the style on your page or on the CSS of your site to make the H1 less obtrusive. See this page (http://www.yournew.com/h1_tags_seo.cfm) for more information about changing font size and style on an H1 tag.
How many H1 Tags Should You Use? You should use one H1 Tag per page. Too many of these tags may confuse search engines or lead them to believe that you are spamming. If your page has one main topic (which it should) then you need one header tag.
Should The H1 Tag Match The Title? Opinions differ. Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz.org indicates that a search engine may want to see a header tag that matches the title. Other voices in the SEO world will tell you that this looks cheap and spammy. Personally, I would match the first few words of the title in the H1 tag, but not have an exact match.
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Notes and Special Information
Special note: SEO is about a lot more than a few metatags and keywords. It is a pursuit of excellence.