SEO Blog

SEO aficionados and regular readers of my blog will be all too aware of the need to balance SEO aspirations and the need to speak directly to visitors. When it comes to your headings, you won’t be too surprised to hear that the balance is much the same.

The strength of H1 headings and the numerous sub-heading options is often under scrutiny. Whilst many would suggest that their power is questionable, headings have been shown to have a measure of affect on the rankings of pages, not least in anchoring the context of a page. Whatever your view, you should certainly not overlook headings when you come to optimise your site.

Banner Headlines Contextualise a Page

Let’s look at the main purpose of a heading first. As we know, the first thing we usually see on any document – be it a newspaper, an essay or a web page – is the title. It is what gives a page its grounding, it provides context to whatever else you have to offer. Whilst images might stand out, ultimately it will be the headings that determine how a visitor views a page.

I pluralise ‘headings’ deliberately, as it isn’t just the headline that you need to focus on but the many sub-headings that you are likely to include as well. These smaller snippets might not be quite as weighty as the main banner title, but they play an important part nonetheless.

Sub-Headings Make Content More Readable

Chiefly sub-headings help to break up sections of text. They draw in the eye and allow people to skim through a document without having to digest the whole piece. When you’re reading in a rush this can be vital.

So when it comes to producing an effective web page it is vital that it is properly formatted. Visitors want to get a quick understanding of what they can expect; they don’t want to have to trawl through 500 words without having the first clue what you are actually going to offer at the end. Give readers what they want and give your content some breathing room.

Headings in SEO

Now comes the SEO bit. As we know, the search engines crawl pages looking for clues as to what its context is. They need to do this in order to index it and rank the page for the correct search term(s). The more information you can give them, without appearing spammy, the better your chances of earning decent positions for your targeted phrases.

By including a key phrase within the H1 heading, you can immediately show it off in a prominent position. Much like human visitors, the search engines see the headline as important, but it certainly isn’t a deal breaker. You should be looking to add context to a page anyway, the headings should just provide a further opportunity.

A H1 tag should only be used once on any page, so don’t try shoehorning in a few to curry favour with the search engine spiders. Use it for your key headline, which, as I say, should probably include a keyword or term.

So What Should You Target?

Always go for your human visitors first. Keywords shouldn’t be levered in where they don’t fit, but you should look to include them if possible. Your titles should be catchy, they should project the message of the page and they should encourage action on the part of visitors.