gouri - 7:48 pm on Oct 23, 2012 (gmt 0)

I had a couple of questions about markup and the possible over optimization that it could lead to, and I was hoping that you guys could help me with this.

On several pages of a website, I have the following in the body section of the HTML source code:

h1 tag (in its own block) and then Chapter 1, body text, link to another page in the body text (Chapter 1, the body text, and the link are in the body text block, separate from the block that the h1 is in)

I am thinking of coding this in the following way:

<h1>Build a Great Widget</h1>
<h4>Chapter 1</h4>
<p>Text here</p>
<p>Text here</p>
<p>Text here</p>
<h4><a href>Building Red Metal Widgets</a></h4> (There is a link to another page within the h4 tag)

(1) Would it be ok to do the above or should I use span tags where I have the h4 tags?

In the h4 tag at the top, I don’t have keyword phrases that I want the page to rank for, but in the h4 tag at the bottom, the link within it is often a keyword phrase that I want the page that it links to to rank for. Could having a link with keyword phrases within an h4 tag be over optimization? Also, I have heard that it is okay to put a link in a heading tag but can you tell me if it is okay to do this?

(2) If using the h4 tags is not over optimization, would there be some benefit of using h4 tags instead of the span tags?

(3) If using the h4 tags is over optimization, can I perhaps use the h4 tag at the top and at the bottom, where I have the link with the keyword phrase, use the span tag instead of the h4?

(4) Is it ok to use an h4 tag after an h1 and not have h2 and h3 tags on the page? h2 and h3 tags, I think, are good to use for sections of a page, but when a page only has paragraphs and you are saying something like Chapter 1, it is better to use an h4.

On other pages of the site, I would like to make the markup in the following way:

<h1>Build a Cool Widget</h1>
<h4>Chapter 2</h4>
<p>Text here</p>
<h2>New Methods<h2>
<p>Text here</p>
<h2> Older Methods</h2>
<p>Text here</p>
<h4><a href>Building Smooth Green Widgets</a></h4> (There is a link to another page within the h4 tag)

(1) When I did some research on the internet, I mostly read that heading tags should be in order. Would it be okay to have the h4 tag before the h2 tags?

Another thing that I had a question about is the signature. I am thinking of coding my signature on the contact page in the following way:

<h4>
Name
www.buildinggreatwidgets.tld (in link form and there are keywords in the domain. The domain is also in link form in the footer of the website.)
name@buildinggreatwidgets.tld (in link form and there are keywords in the domain name portion of the address)
</h4>

(1) Could I put my signature in an h4 tag or would this cause over optimization? Should I use a span tag instead?

(2) If putting the signature in an h4 tag is not over optimization, is it still better practice to use span tags for it?

I know that I have asked a lot of questions, but I want to code my pages properly and don’t want to over optimize.

I would really appreciate your responses.