H1 tag and SEO?

Besides for a title and heading. Does anyone use the H1 tag for SEO purposes? I've heard that you should but I figured that it can't be more important that any other content. What do you all think?

 

I have not used it but i heard that Google ranking algorithm gives more importance for the text in between h1 tag

 

I've always thought using the <h1> tag was helpful for SEO mainly because of its bold font-weight and it's larger size. Never really thought it had anything to do with the <h1> tag itself.

I use it once in awhile, but I mainly just bold keywords and titles that I'm hoping Google will pick up.

 

Thanks for the input! I have never though about bold keywords and title being more likely to be picked up. If only I knew their ever-changing, secret algorithm, right?

 

first heading should be in H1 tag and sub heading h2,......etc

 

I've been using H1 and I can tell you that's it's important when it comes to on page optimization. My ranks improved from that change alone. If you do plan to change some of your older posts and add h1. Be sure to get your site cached again by google.

 

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

 

Using H1 tag would make the title attractive, I think it's a good idea. But I'm not very sure it would be good for SEO.

 

Using the h1 tag is good for seo because it is good for users. most papers that you read have a title and then sub titles and subcategories that is how normal navigation goes. So Search engines looking at the h1 tag is reasonable and a good way to figure out the main idea of a page.

 

I also heard that it is good for SEO but I also never used it so far.

 

Just keep it simple and don't overuse H1 tag. If you use it in the title, then consider NOT using it in the content.
H2 for headlines
H3 for content font

 

Yes it does carry some SEO value, but you have to remember it is just one of over 200 different factors. There are many other more important things to focus on, but really it shouldn't be a case of should I optimise it for SEs. You should optimise everything to give yourself the best possible chance of achieving good positions.

 

So True
You really need to have good content written with passion.

 

Maybe. I just don't think using a simple tag like <h1> could hold that much weight, if any. If it were that simple everyone would put <h1> tags on each of their pages. As soon as Google realized everyone was doing this, they'd change things up.

Just seems to simple.

 

@sebasago,
The font size and weight has no importance in SEO. The h1 element is used as a heading to describe the following content and Google will treat it as such. Like the title of a chapter, it may use that as higher importance than just a line in a paragraph. However, too much usage of h1, or using it for a whole page, would probably be flagged and penalized. Only a stupid designer would do such a thing.

 

H1 does seem to have an effect on google results as far as i've seen. But don't go crazy with the h2's, h3's e.t.c. google gets what you have on your site, no need to repeat it a million times

 

As per html 4.01 documentation h1 is considered to be most important and h6 is the least important. They needs to be used semantically -

<h1>Main Header of the Page</h1>

<h2>Section 1 header of the page</h2> 
<h3>Sub-section 1 header of Section 1</h3>
<h3>Sub-section 2 header of Section 1</h3> 

<h2> Section 2 header of the page</h2>
<h3>Sub-section 1 header of Section 2</h3> 
<h3>Sub-section 2 header of Section 2</h3> 

Code (markup):

I think, Google respect W3C and semantic web as well.

 

I agree with him...

 

H1 tag is important for SEO that's why when people search for a free theme they try to look for one with H1 tag