What Are Heading Tags and How to Use Them Properly

You'll find that every great piece of written content online is well-structured, with plenty of headings and subheadings. Likewise, search engines and algorithms are coded to support structured content since it's better for readability and enhances user experience.

The correct structure of a blog or article makes it easy for your website's visitors to understand how the text is organized.  It also helps search algorithms figure out the semantic meaning and context, connect it with relevant data, and suggest it on search results.

Computers read data, identify patterns and make decisions accordingly without human help. So, it is essential to use the correct structure before uploading your content online. Therefore, heading tags are among the top requisites for writing and posting structured content.

Heading Tags – What You Need To Know!

Heading tags or Header tags separate headings and sub-headings on the page to structure the content. As they improve the readability of the content, they also raise the SEO ranking. However, every heading tag should be written according to the topic and not deviate from it. Additionally, refrain from inserting unnecessary heading breaks, affecting the content's flow.

The heading tags have to be formatted differently so the reader can recognize the position only by looking at the heading.

HTML supports six header tags, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, and h6. Each of these tags varies in importance. However, while you can use all heading tags multiple times, the H1 tag is used only once per article.

So let's explore these individually.

H1

Put the page's title in H1, and make sure you use this tag only once. It's also a good idea to always put a keyword there, so your reader knows what awaits them on the page.

Your H1 heading should also be interesting to instantly grab the reader's attention, compelling them to click on the link.

Again, if you are worried about how many H1 tags per page are appropriate, the answer is 1!

H2

H2 is the subheading, and there can be multiple H2s in the content. These are used to classify the main points and separate different paragraphs.

If you want to know how many H2 tags per page you can get away with, experts say that you can put as many of them in there as you need to ensure quality.

It is necessary to use semantic keywords related to your main idea in every H2, giving your reader a good idea of what they are about to read in the next paragraph. This helps algorithms to flag your content as relevant. Moreover, it quickly leads readers to the specific sections they want to read.

H3

H3s are the subsections of H2. They further categorize the content under H2 heading tags. In some cases, they are also used to format bullet points while further clarifying and expanding upon the topic.

H4

H4 comes after the H3 tag. They are used to explain the points of the H3 tag further.

H5

If H3 has not covered all the details and can be further categorized, you use the H5 heading tag for categorization. However, H5s are not very important as they are used quite rarely.

H6

You can use H6s if there are more categories in the H5. These have little to no SEO importance. They aren't used frequently as no subject has this much categorization.

Header Tags and SEO

You may think that your content doesn't need heading tags, but these tags do more than only structure your content and are vital for the success of your website.

You see, heading tags also optimize the content for searchability, giving search engines a good understanding of what your site's all about and how beneficial it would be for the readers.

Heading tags are important because they have high keyword relevancy and readability. Google web crawlers analyze the page for SEO's headings tags, text, and images. Content with appropriate header tags signals to crawlers that you produce quality content. As a result, your blog or webpage ranks higher on the search engine results pages.

However, if your H1 doesn't have a keyword or if keywords are irrelevant to the actual content of your page, crawlers will find it challenging to understand the context of your post. That is why you need to ensure that the header tags HTML match the keyword intent. Or else, your content ranking will decrease automatically.

You only have to ensure that your keywords have a good search level and are human and crawler friendly. Another reason for using header tags is that they make the piece user-friendly. The clearly labeled sections make it easier for readers to comprehend the information that is organized strategically.

How To Insert Heading Tags In HTML?

Hypertext markup language (HTML) is a formatting system to increase the material quality present on the internet. HTML markup tags specify content's structure and differentiate between headings, paragraphs, and tables. They further define the title, main headings, and the flow of the content.

Operating HTML to insert heading tags is simple. If you want to insert an H1 HTML tag, you will write it this way:

<h1> _heading text_ </h1>

Use this format as an H2 tag example in HTML and other headers tags. You only have to specify what header tag you are adding, and the HTML will post it correctly.

But this format is only applicable on HTML4 and older versions. In HTML5, you will have to use:

<header> <h1>  _heading text_ </h1> </header>

The word header is used to clue Google about what H1 is. Therefore, it would be best to format the heading tags correctly as Google crawlers read the tag to inform the web browser about your page's context. If the HTML format is incorrect, Google will not read the header tags and lower your SERP ranking.

Conclusion

Heading tags are a great way to segment and structure content on the webpage. In addition to increasing readability for users, it also helps search engine crawlers to find the content and rank it higher. So, it would be best if you use header tags while creating web pages and web posts.

If your business website needs better organization as far as headings go or you feel your lack of understanding of header tags is causing your website not to rank as well as you’d like, then contact the experts at Epitome Digital Marketing.  We can get your website on the right track and ranking better!