I was wondering if I should change my headers to H1s and resize them with CSS to emphasise keywords for the SERPS. Would doing this help my case?
I would say yes. nohaber believes that if you are using font (<font>) tags, then the <h> is pretty much irrelevant. Personally I use external CSS files for all of my sites so that isn't an issue for me. I use H1's and seem to do OK...
Without a doubt. See this experiment.. http://www.edsolutions.ca/seo-google-test-results-09-05-2004.html (work from the bottom of the page upwards). Jane
I think Nohaber is wrong about this. The <h> tag is a multifunction tag. It indicates that the text enclosed is a heading -- hence important -- and used by itself it applies formating to the text. <h1> being larger than <h2> etc. If you want to apply a different formating to the text enclosed in <h> tags you can use <font> tags for all of the font attributes, size, color, style, but this doesn't change the fact that you are indicating that the text enclosed in the <h> tag is a heading, and hence important. It simple indicates that for aethetic reasons you wish to modify the default formating. I'm sure that Google see the <h> tag, regardless of the <font> tags that my or may not be there, and recognizes the text enclosed as important. Does Google apply significantly more importance to <h1> than <h2> , <h3> etc? I think the answer is maybe. There has been a lot of attempts to do <h> tag spamming. So it wouldn't surprise me if Google gave all <h> tags equal weight. If I don't want to be bothered adjusting size I will often use <h2> tags for the first heading on the page. I don't think it makes a bit of difference. I also wouldn't be surprised if Google put some size, or length, limitation of what they will consider important within <h> tags. People who enclose entire paragraphs are obviously using the <h> tag improperly and trying to spam the SEs. I would guess that probably works against them and they end up with none of the words in the long <h> tag enclosure being given importance. Now that we have beaten this to death one more time I have to enclose the disclaimer that all this is <h> tag discussion is really a waste of time. For any mildly competitive search term, on-page elements probably only contribute 5% or less to the SERP placements. Links and good anchor text is where the action is. <h> tags are an intellectual curiousity at best. We should all get a life, and get some links.
hehe - Well said compar ; ) Just to clarify one point first if you don't mind... Let's just say for arguments sake that what nohaber is saying is in fact correct... Does this then mean that as long as you use an external CSS file to control the style of the h, then it will be seen as an h... nohaber's theory threw me off a little and I am just trying to get this right. If what nohaber is saying is in fact true, then it probabally wouldn't only apply to <h> tags would it. <p>, <li> etc would all be effected.
I'm not up to speed on CSS files so I can't answer your question authoritatively. But I believe that in the latest HTML standards there is a movement away from <h> tags because they indicate both importance and influence appearance. I believe that the preference is to use <strong> to indicate importance and then whatever is appropiate to influence the appearance. I don't think that answers your question, but it does add to the <h> tag discussion.
This now becomes extended does it not. Someone could wrap full paragraphs of copy within <strong> tags and then style those how they like within the css file. I didn't realise that the <h> tag is moving away., If anything, I would have thought that it would stay and be of benefit... Huh - the'res soooooo much I have got to learn
It is because of this very abuse that the jury is out. Personally I don't use H1, just a gut thing I guess. If I get a gut feeling I go with it, at least when I fall on my arse then I can tel myself it was MY fault and to get up. I also use H2 and control it with CSS. You do have a usability thing to also think of when designing, so using css is perfect, as ideally you should control with CSS so that the various disability browsers can resize etc.