Are Heading Tags Important For Higher Search Engine Rankings?

Imagine finding a house in a locality with thousands of flats. You will get confused about whether to enter the first one or the second one or the third one.

Similarly, when it comes to looking for something on a website, heading tags act as the nameplate that notifies users about the published content.

These tags are very important to structure any data on a particular web page and help to understand the content of your page in a better way.

In fact, Google bots also look for heading tags to identify the content of your page in relation to the search query.

What Are Heading Tags?

I am sure you are familiar with essay or article writing during your initial school days. 

For instance, when you were asked to write about your family. You used to mention every family member in the following manner.

. Grandfather
. Father
. Mother
. Siblings

Taking that as an example, let’s decipher different categories and understand their role better.

Family being the topic of conversation becomes an important entity. Hence, termed as “H1 tag”,

While others are the reason why we call the word “Family” in the first place. 

Heading tags work in a similar manner. They make the identification of any document published online easy by dividing a large chunk of data into different compartments. 

And thus given the names.

H1, H2, H3,…. and so on,

<h1>This is an H1 heading</h1>

This particular tag helps the browser to format the data into a different style. For others, the heading tags look the following ways. 

<h2>This is an H2 heading </h2>

<h3>This is an H3 heading </h3>

However, apart from being apart of design aesthetics, heading tags have a role in other important rankings factors of SEO as well.

They Make Any Content User-friendly

Nobody likes to read hundreds of paragraphs trying to figure out what is the intent behind writing one.

I am sure that’s not something you would ever wish to happen.

Using different heading tags makes your content easier to understand both by searchers as well as Google crawlers.

As mentioned earlier, now we know that H1 is one of the most important tags followed by H2, H3 and so on.

So, whenever you are using it in your web page. Make sure the users resonate well with the content.

 They Induce the Concept of Hierarchy 

Anything that is divided into sections and subsections automatically comes under the concept of hierarchy.

But, you must follow the hierarchy in the manner it is supposed to. This includes-

<h1> followed by <h2>, <h2>followed by <h3>, and so on.

Using this hierarchy without any break helps to improve SEO rankings efficiently. 

They Help To Reach The Target Audience Organically

I am sure you are familiar with the concept of keywords in SEO marketing. They are phrases that are used by searchers or your potential customers for finding answers to their queries.

And marketers are using these phrases to let them reach their potential customers.

Using such a phrase in your heading tags as well will help Google bots and visitors reach your web page over your competitors.

Although everyone knows about the importance of header tags. But, still, many of the marketers fail to understand the concept of tags entirely.

Here’s How To Write Impressive Heading Tags For SEO

1. Make sure to keep an H1 tag at the top of your web page.

2. Use phrases used by your users to describe the content in the tags.

3. If you want to trigger a question, make sure to include one in your H1 tag.

4. If you are writing a blog or an article about “HOW TO DO SOMETHING…”, make sure to put every step in the H2 tag. And try to use LSI keywords that can be naturally spread across other tags.

By now, you must have an idea that searchers click on the websites more whose content feature on featured snippets.

And if you are using hierarchy correctly while answering the most searched questions simultaneously.

Chances are that you might reach the spot of snippets. Hence, more clicks, traffic, leads, and eventually conversions.

Using Heading Tags to Target Keywords Used By The Searchers

There are many ways you want to engage your potential customers. You either go for PPC ads or start video marketing.

But, these strategies cost as well.

And mind you a lot more than what you expect.

While SEO too does cost you. But, definitely not the way other marketing strategies do.

So, using this strategy to its maximum potential should be on the top of your priority list.

For instance, you can use heading tags in the following ways to target the searchers’ intent.

1. If you are targeting “What is”, then using H1 tags will be very beneficial. Make sure you have the answer ready next to the question. It will help Google and visitors find the answer easily.
2. For “How to” questions, people often look for instructions or follow certain directions. By using every step in a different header tag can help you to rank the content faster than before.
3. When you wish to tell your searchers about “New launches, offers or services”, make sure to put forth the important detail in the H1 tag.

We have reached a point where we have understood the concept of heading tags. But, one should also have an idea of things that they should avoid while writing for heading tags too.

Here Is The List Of Things That You Should Avoid Doing With Heading Tags

1. Never stuff your heading tags with excess of keywords.
2. Never use more than one H1 tag for a page.
3. Refrain from using hidden text in your H1 tags. This might result in penalties.
4. Never repeat any heading tag for two or more pages.
5. Don’t use heading tags for the purpose of styling. You have many other tools for that.

SEO marketing is evolving every other day. And adding to that is the high competition among brands for online recognition.

So, it is essential to make every word or strategy count in your favor. Start optimizing your heading tags right away and improve your chances of ranking higher in the SERPs.