11 Jul Header Tags H1
I will be adding posts over the coming weeks, designed to help Small Irish Businesses market themselves online. One of the first steps I feel is to gain an understanding of what the component portions of your web site are. In my opinion header tags are often overlooked when on-site SEO is being performed.
What are H, header or heading tags?
A header tag, for example a h1 tag is a prominent piece of text on a web page. It could be likened to the headline of a newspaper or magazine article and is designed to help readers quickly understand what the web page is about. More importantly the h tags are given preference by search engines when determining the content of the web page, as a rule I would not abuse the header tags or use them for anything other than header text. It is a very bad idea to use them in replacement for paragraph text.
HTML:
<h1>Your SEO Headline</h1>
How can localised headings help my SEO?
Because headings are defined with HTML code, search engines understand that these pieces of text are of particular importance. You should include important keywords for a page in its H1 heading to tell search engines what the page is about, and help it rank higher in results for searches on those words. Localising the headers is also a great way to find your niche within these keywords and increase qualified traffic referrals from search engines.
<h1>Wordpress Developer</h1>
vs
<h1>Wordpress Developer Ireland</h1>
Your website should include important keywords for a page in its H1 heading to tell search engines what the page is about, and help it rank higher in results for searches on those words. Localising the headers is also a great way to find your niche within these keywords and increase qualified traffic referrals from search engines.
Get Results Early
You are far more likely to see early results with this localised approach. Google has a very segmented SERP view and as the search engine becomes more and more localised, users will see more geographically relevant based search results. Aside from the segmentation of google.ie and google.com, localised search terms are used by users to eliminate unwanted results. The simple addition of Ireland or Dublin to your headings and titles can see you appearing in relevant local searches, without taking away from more generalised searches, which do not specify and county or country.
How to check your header tags?
You can find out by looking at the HTML source code for every page on your site. When you’re viewing the page, look for this option in your web browser. For example, in Firefox, you would click “View” at the top of the page, and then “Page Source.” You’ll see a page of code, and you can search for <h1> tags.
How can I update my header tags?
Your content management system should have an easy way to add headers from h1 to h6. Using WordPress it is very simple and you can see a screen shot of the header tag format selection drop down below.
