H-Tags

Websites are written in HTML (HyperText Markup Language), where different tags communicate to the internet browser how to read and display different elements. One of those tags is the H-Tag (also known as the “Heading Tag”) which looks as follows:

This is a Heading

H-Tags are HTML formatting descriptions that are assigned to text on a webpage to make it appear more prominently. H-Tags 1-6 indicate the text hierarchy. There are six different heading tags in the HTML language, ranging from H1 to H6.

How H-Tags Work

H1 is deemed to be the most crucial heading and is usually used at the top of the content, whereas H6 is the least important. You can use the same number of heading tags throughout your work to indicate that each of these sections is of equal importance. Still, you generally shouldn’t skip steps by jumping from an H1 to an H3 title without utilizing the H2 tag in between. This is vital for ensuring the structure of your content remains coherent.

The most straightforward approach to organizing heading tags is to use H1 as the main heading (like the title of a blog post) and H2 for all the other headings. But, if your headings include further sub-points or your content is particularly complex and meticulously organized, introducing smaller headings (like H3 and H4 tags) might become critical.

Bear in mind, categorizing headings with these tag numbers mean a whole category of titles can be styled in the associated CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) file. As such, your most important heading will boast the biggest and most elaborate font, followed by the H2 tag, then H3, and H4, and so on and so forth.

As you probably already know, theses subheadings are consistently styled as bold and slightly larger than the ordinary text.

H-Tags and SEO

Google reads header tags to understand the structure of your content better. As such, it expects to see some variation in the use of your heading tags so we advise you to use different headings where possible to boost your SEO. Needless to say, you don’t need to use all six, and can, in theory, even use the H1 tag more than once.

For SEO, heading tags are also good places to insert the keywords you’re optimizing your content to rank for. Again, this is useful to Google, as it helps them to estimate the relevance of your article. Not only that, but it also assists readers with scanning your headings. This works wonders for assisting them in deciphering whether your content is what they’re actually looking for. However, use keywords in your heading tags sparingly. Cramming too many keywords into your titles can appear spammy to Google’s algorithm.

Proper H1 to H6 Structure

Below is an example of how the H-Tags might be used in a comparison piece.

H1: Element 1 vs. Element 2, Which is Better?
H2: Pricing
H3: Element 1’s Pricing
H3: Element 2’s Pricing
H2: Features
H3: Element 1’s Features
H4: What’s Missing
H3: Element 2’s Features
H4: What’s Missing
H2: Conclusion

The key takeaway: Using headings in a well-structured way allows both your website visitors and Google’s algorithm to quickly identify the most critical point of the page (the H1 tag) and the sub-topics within it (the H2 to H6 tags).