What are Header Tags and How To Use Them — People First Content

4 min readSep 4, 2022

You’ve seen the terms header tags and H1’s thrown around, but you’re not quite sure what they are.

Well, you’re in luck. We’re about to dive into one of the most commonly overlooked aspects of blog and content writing.

What are Header Tags

Header tags (also known as H tags) are HTML codes that help to differentiate headings and subheadings on a page. The tags go from H1 to H6 in order of importance — with H1 being the most important and H6 being the least.

Benefits of Headers

There are several benefits to using header tags that serve readers and search engines.

Better organization

For people, it helps organize the content by subtopics so the reader can find what they’re looking for and set expectations. In this day and age, most people don’t read, but rather they scan. So when users read your blog, they’re often looking to find answers quickly.

In addition, headers introduce readers to what topic a specific section will cover. Before continuing their reading, users will know what to expect from a particular body of text based on the H tag.

Break up text

There are readability benefits to H tags. People may feel overwhelmed when they see long paragraphs. As a solution, headers are the perfect tools for breaking up long bodies of text.

Your job as a blog writer is to effectively educate and provide value to your readers. So headers can be a way to give users a break from reading while also evenly spacing out your content into chunks. Shorter paragraphs are easier to consume, and it helps quicken the reading flow.

Help boost SEO

For search engines, headers give SEO crawlers more context about what contents on the webpage cover, enabling them to better index and rank the page for search.

How To Use Them: Header Tag Best Practices

Yes, there are specific ways to go about using header tags. It’s vital that you implement them correctly so to improve your website’s SEO.

Follow a proper hierarchy, structure

Header tags don’t exist solely for design purposes. They’re a way of structuring content that tells search engines which information is more important on the page. So if you’re going to use header tags, be sure to follow the proper order. The order is always: H1 > H2 > H3…

Another thing to note: don’t skip header levels. Skipping H tags could cause confusion for Google and may incorrectly evaluate and index your page. So, for example, don’t use an H3 if you haven’t used an H2.

Here are more tips on how to use each tag:

H1: Primarily serves as the title, the main heading for the page.
H2 & H3: Commonly used as subheadings
H4, H5, H6: Can be used as subheadings or bullet points

Include keywords in H tags

Including your target keyword in your header tags is a good idea. It helps search engines better understand your content so you can rank for your target query.

But don’t force it. You want to insert keywords naturally so that you don’t diminish readability. On the other hand, when every header tag has your keyword, it makes your blog seem repetitive and hard to read.

Use only ONE H1 tag

Be sure that your webpage contains only one H1 tag.

It’s not for SEO purposes, as Google revealed that multiple H1’s don’t affect ranking , but the reason is for readability. H1 tags mainly serve as the title text and are often the most prominent text on the page. When you include multiple of them, it can clutter your text, which may confuse the reader. Imagine if this blog used all H1’s. It would be difficult to read.

So it’s a good rule of thumb to stick to one H1 header.

Make sure the headers grab people’s attention

Headers can be a great way to get people to continue reading. If there’s an interesting subtopic you think people may not know about, it’s probably a good idea to set it as one of your H tags.

You want your blog to answer questions users may have and questions they didn’t know they needed. So use headers as a way to grab readers’ attention.

Conclusion

The best way to approach headers is to think about your audience. How can your blog help users find what they need? What subtopics and information that you feel are important for readers to know?

It all begins with crafting good content. Start creating a blog that provides value, and the headers will write themselves.

Originally published at https://www.peoplefirstcontent.com on September 4, 2022.