I know the hierarchy of heading tags is important in SEO, but I'd like to know just how crucial it is if this order becomes altered. For instance, I'm working on a new design which has an h1 in the center of the home page, while a couple h2's are above it and an h3 below it. So the markup would look something like this: <h2>text</h2> <h1>text</h1> <h3>text</h3> My question is, will this not be as easily crawled, seen, or picked up by search engines because the h1 is not at the top where it normally should be? I would otherwise just put it at the top, but for the sake of my design, the text in the center of the page is the main description of the site, and is placed there for aesthetics. However being the main description I feel it should be an h1. Am I worrying too much about heading placement, or will having an h1 after an h2 be just fine for SEO? Thanks!
No problem there as long as you have only 1 H1 tag. Also, unless you really need it forget about the H3 tags. I haven't seen that many sites where one is even needed. Normally, H1 & 2 are all you need. That way you will end up with your h1 first, followed by the h2.
Sounds like a good answer to me! Just because your h2 is above your h1 it shouldn't cause a problem imho As you need to do so for aesthetic reasons and content is King and presentation contents main Queen, so unless it causes a noticable problem just go with it dude If you notice any problems please do let us know matey as it will help us all Trial and error and seeing what works and what doesn't is something we all have to learn from after all.
Thanks to you both. This is pretty much what I assumed, that it won't be a big deal. Although I have the thoughts in the back of my mind saying they should only be displayed in numerical order, i.e: h1 then h2. But I'll try it out. If anyone else knows first hand that search engines prefer it in order, please do let me know. Thanks!
Well I can tell you I have pages on page 1 (of Google etc) for the targeted search terms using mostly H3 for subsequent sections after 1 H1 if that helps. Not exactly what you are looking for but comparable as there are no h2 tags I could always give it (what you said) a go to see if you don't get the answer you need tronicscribe
H1 tag is important for SEO There are 6 tag but only 1st 3 tag are important but given in Orlder 1-----h1 tag 2-----h2 tag 3-----h3 tag