Gary Illyes from Google answered a question about the SEO value of arranging heading elements hierarchically (H1, H2, etc.), and his answer provided some insight into the actual value of heading elements in digital marketing.
Heading elements
Simply put, HTML elements are the building blocks of a web page, and just like the foundation and roof of a house have their place in the overall structure, every HTML element has its place.
Heading elements communicate the topic and subtopics of a web page, so that if you view the page looking at the heading alone, it is literally a list of topics.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which defines HTML, describes headings as follows:
“HTML defines six levels of headings. A heading element contains all the font changes, before and after paragraph breaks, and white space needed to display the heading. The heading elements are H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6, with H1 being the highest level (or the most important level) and H6 being the lowest level.
Headers play a related role in structuring a document as lists do, and it is common for headers to be numbered or to contain graphics that act like bullets in a list.”
Strictly speaking, it is absolutely correct to order headings hierarchically.
What Google says about headlines
The questioner commented that the SEO Starter Guide recommends using heading elements in a “semantic” order for people using screen readers (devices that convert text to speech), but that it is otherwise not important to Google. The questioner wanted to know if the SEO Starter Guide was out of date because SEO tools have different recommendations.
Gary responded to the question:
“I recently read in an SEO starter guide that “while having your headings in a semantic order is great for screen readers, from a Google search perspective it doesn’t matter if they’re out of order.”
Is this correct because the SEO tool told me something different?”
This is a good question, because it makes sense to use heading elements in a way that indicates the hierarchical importance of different sections of a web page.
Gary’s response was:
“We update our documentation frequently to keep it up to date. In fact, our SEO Starter Guide was just updated a few months ago to stay relevant, so the information in the guide is as accurate as possible.
And just because a non-Google tool shows something is good or bad doesn’t mean it’s relevant to Google. It might be a good idea, but it’s not necessarily relevant to Google.”
Is it relevant to Google?
The official HTML standard is flexible when it comes to the use of headings.
The criteria here are:
“Heading elements briefly describe the topic of the section they introduce. Heading information may be used by user agents, for example, to automatically create a table of contents for the document.”
And here:
“The heading elements are H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6, with H1 being the highest level (or most important level) and H6 being the least important.”
The official HTML5 specification for headings implies a hierarchical order, but in both cases the heading signals the start of a new section within the web page, and while the official standard recommends “nesting” subtopic headings, this is a “strong” recommendation, not a hard and fast rule.
“The first element of heading content within a section content element represents the heading of that section. Subsequent headings of equal or higher rank start new (implied) sections, and headings of lower rank start implied subsections that are part of the previous section. In either case, the element represents the heading of the implied section.”
Sections may contain headings of any rank, but authors are strongly encouraged to use only h1 elements, or elements of a rank appropriate to the section’s nesting level.”
The final part of the official standard clearly states that users are “encouraged” to use only H1 elements. This may sound strange to some, but it’s the reality. Still, it’s just a recommendation, not a hard and fast rule.
Only in the official HTML standard for heading elements in the context of accessibility are there stricter recommendations on using heading elements with a hierarchical structure (from most important to least important).
As you can see, Google’s usage of heading elements appears to conform to the official standard, as the standard allows deviations, except for accessibility reasons.
SEO tools correctly point out that using heading elements properly and ordering them in a hierarchical order is a good idea, but the tools are wrong in saying that it’s good for SEO.
So while H1s are the most important heading for screen readers, they’re not the most important heading for Google. When I was doing SEO in 2001, H1s were the most important heading element. But that hasn’t been the case for decades.
For some reason, some SEO tools (and SEOs themselves) still believe that the H1 is the most important heading for Google. But this isn’t true at all.
Listen to the SEO Office Hours podcast at minute 13:17.
Featured image: Shutterstock/AlenD
