How Important are H1 (Header) Tags

We have discussed the header tag at least a couple times here in the past. But there is a new WebmasterWorld thread that asks what is The importance of the H1 tag, today?

What I find most interesting is the strong views from various SEOs on both extremes.

Those that feel the H1 tag isn't used say;

I doubt if the use of the H1 tag is still working to get get higher listings. I think it even may hurt your listings.

I personally don't see it as H1's giving pages a 'lift'...but as H1's doing what they are supposed to do, so that a page can be shown for relevant searches.

So the H1 tag often represents an artificial attempt to inflate a page's ranking.

Those that feel the H1 tag is used say;

I think that used correctly it is still a major contributor.

I think it is still a very large factor

The idea that using H1 will hurt you is nuts. What can hurt you is not following Google's guidelines. If you use a bunch of crap techniques, that is what will get someone into trouble, not having an H1. It's like blaming your windshield for a flat tire.

I will continue to use the H1. It helps to create a well-formed document and just because others have abused it is no reason for me to create crappy mark-up.

The ping pong debate goes back and forth. Me? I use it because of the last quote above.

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posted rustybrick in Search Engine Optimization at August 25, 2005 8:44 AM Comments (11)

Comments

agreed...put me on the "feel it's used" side. I could see this becoming something the spiders look more closely at, due to possible misuse. Stay in the light and you will continue to see what is in front of you..

Posted by Chris B at August 26, 2005 13:12

Hello
there is no such negative impact of H1 html tag and i think should be use as SEO point of view!!:)

Posted by Jem Smith at October 2, 2007 18:29

H1 tags should be used for what they were originally created for: organizing your documents to stress the key points. When used right, I can't see how H1 tags could hurt your cause at all... it just helps the search engines understand what the emphasis of the page is.

Posted by John Clinebell at March 7, 2008 17:52

Sure, the H1 tag means for "Page header" and it must contain a few words about what's the page about. I thinkg that putting your keywords in the H1 tag helps your page be listed better in Google.

Posted by Murry at October 19, 2008 06:43

without using h1 tag shall we move for h2 tag, it makes seo friendly? reply

Posted by king at December 18, 2008 01:54

you could go one better king and use the h3 tag ...

Posted by nuts at January 12, 2009 08:43

I am very new to onpage optimization was searching for information on H1 tags & found your post is very useful!!

Posted by No Name at June 16, 2009 05:16

I just want to know how important h2, h3, h4 tags. Are they more important that tag or less important. Can you please help me out with this.

Thanks

Rahul

Posted by No Name at June 25, 2009 05:20

Funny how an article written 4 years ago stills get comments today.
My opinion is do everything possible to help your rankings. There is no hard evidence that H1 tags are useless. So why not use them and organize your pages in an easy to read format.

Posted by Travis Thorpe at July 6, 2009 18:14

As a follow up question, does the order in which you position heading tags on the page make any difference to SERP position, such as
:

Cats

This page is all about Siamese cats, so I want the main keyword for this page as Siamese cats

Siamese Cats

I will talk all about Siamese cats

Posted by Pommy at July 7, 2009 22:00

I want to use an H1 tag for search engines

but i don't its contents to display on the page

suggestions?

Posted by brent Stuart at August 31, 2009 19:42

How Important are H1 (Header) Tags

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