Hello, I created a website forum, similiar to this but different genre....And I have ready that header tags are important to have. Is this true? I am just tweeking the forum now and throwing in some good content for the h1, h2 etc.... is this an important thing to be doing to optimize the forum site?
H1 tag must contain a few words about what's the page about.Putting your keywords in the H1 tag helps your page be listed better in Google.
Matt Cutts has actually said that h1 is no different than h6 in terms of weight. It does however make it easier to read for the user and Google is all about user experience so it does help both the user and spiders understand your website structure. Keywords are always good in h tags, but don't spam.
Those were the basic thing that needs to put in one website, either its forums or not. I believe h1, h2 is important in our on-page optimization..
It is good to have a h1 tag that has the keywords you would like to rank high for. Let say your forum is about online business it would be a good idea to have online business forum in h1 at the top of the page. This also helps visitors know exactly what your site/forum is as soon as they visit.
H1,h2 tags give structure to your website's content and text within these tags are given higher importance than other text within your pages.
Title tags are the most important - make sure your main keywords are in there. As for H tags - sure try and optimise them but don't go over the top, keep them varied. If you over optimise and have tags H1-H6 containing the same words, it may look spammy. Try and make it useful for the user too rather than just looking at an SEO perspective.