We’ve all learned at some point in school that there are proper ways to structure essays or any other type of writing articles. They same goes for writing a great blog article or original content for web pages. In this article we’ll educate you on what h-tags are and why they are essential to SEO efforts.
What Are H-tags?
I know what most of you are thinking, h-tag is short for hashtag right? Good guess but the answer is no. The “H” stands for header and it designates the structure and importance of the keywords used in the tagging.
Using a proper h-tag structure denotes a summary of an article or webpage based on the titles used. The best way to think of a h-tag structure is to imagine it as an outline with headings, subheadings, and with those subheading having their own subheadings.
The main theme of the page has an H1 tag. Sub topic titles of that page will carry H2 tags and sub topic title of H2 tags will carry H3 designation. This can go on and on until H6 tags are used. Most search engines only care about H1-H3 tags therefore H4-H6 aren’t used as often. Below is an example that will make it easier to visualize.
There are multiple ways to install h-tags on your articles or web pages content. The easiest way is to allow your content writing system to designate it for you. If you’re using WordPress, this is an easy process. The second way to manually enter h-tags is to install it in the page code. For an easy guide, read this article for help.
Using h-tags the proper way does overlap with web development. If you need help with setting h-tags up please evaluate our web design & development as a resource.
Why are H-tags Important?
H-tags are a very important part of technical SEO. It provides search engines with the outline of your content so they can digest the data faster and provide a high level of confidence in displaying a page in it’s search results. Just think of it, if you know more about one product and not another, which one will you buy. It’s always the one that you know and the same thing happens with Google. A proper h-tag structure lets search engines know the importance of the page though title tagging and subsequent subheading help provide additional focuses that will help broaden the web pages reach in closely related search results.
Key Takeaways
- H-tags are an important part of SEO that shouldn’t be ignored.
- There are multiple ways to install h-tags to suit your level of expertise.
- The order of your h-tags matter. Don’t confuse the search engines.
- Think of your h-tag structure as an outline.
