All my websites have logos, so I don't use any text on the top part of my sites. I need H1 tags, but I don't want to have to reuse my title again somewhere so that I can have H1 tags around them. If I have display:none on my H1 tags, does that hurt my SEO? Should I put the H1 tags on my image?
so say h1 is important, some say doesnt matter. i have seen so many websites without a h1 tag rank top position in google for highly competitive keywords.
@BlogSalesman, Never use hidden text. And Do not spam your images. Just Never. It is only 2 days back, google de-indexed billions of sites from its index. I have seen many keywords, the competition decreased to 1/10th. The keyword having 100 million competition now have mere 10 million competition. The reason of de-indexing is wrong seo. Both on-page and Off-page. Image spam and header spam are common mistakes among de-indexed sites. NOW.... how you should do it? Use h1 for your 1-2 top keywords just after <body> tag starts and reduce its size by using css. @rankhostreview.com, H1 is important tag. And there are several scores of reason for a site being on top.
If by "logo" you mean "masthead" or "site logo" use an image element instead. Save the headings for the page content. Here's an example of what I mean: (add a space and a forward slash to the closing bracket of the image if you're using an XHTML DOCTYPE) <div id="container"> <div id="header"> <img src="/images/logo.png" width="200" height="80" alt="(Name of Web Site) Logo" title=""> </div> <ul id="menu"> <li><a href="#">Menu Item</a></li> <li><a href="#">Menu Item</a></li> <li><a href="#">Menu Item</a></li> <li><a href="#">Menu Item</a></li> <li><a href="#">Menu Item</a></li> <li><a href="#">Menu Item</a></li> </ul> <div id="content"> <div class="wrapper"> <h1>Web Page Title</h1> <!-- Web page content, marked up appropriately with semantics in mind, goes here --> </div> </div> <div id="sidebar"> <!-- relevant sidebar content goes here --> </div> <div id="advertising"> <!-- this is useful if you have a sidebar with nothing but ads --> </div> <div id="footer"> <em>Copyright © 2006-2007, The Monster Under the Bed. All Rights to Scare Unsuspecting Children Reserved.</em> </div> </div> Code (markup):
using display:none in that way sounds like it would qualify as hidden text, which can definitely hurt you. If you are using a legitimate CSS image-replacement technique so that the text displays when the image does not, I believe this is fine, and may help. I'm currently experimenting with one of my sites by wrapping the header graphic in an <h1> tag, so that the 'alt' text displays as an H1 with images off. It's great for accessibility, but it's too soon to tell if it's doing much in terms of SEO one way or the other.
Yes, it's a legitimate use of image substitution, but it's mis-using the heading to present the logo/branding/masthead, which should be seved as an image anyway.
I don't want to hide my H1 tags, but I also don't want to have to place my title on the page again just for the H1 tags. I have a little redesign of my site in mind where I am going to place an explanation of my site in the top right, so I will put the H1 tag there.
I don't quite think you understood me (and if I'm wrong, then I apologize in advance for the error). What I'm saying is to use an image element for the site title and to use the H1 heading for the page title. That way you don't have to use the H1 element twice per page, and you can also save it for the title of the Web page as well.