Linking Headings H2 etc

[piskie]

I am laying out a Home Page and for convenience plus in the interest of an uncluttered appearance, I would like to link all 6 H2 headings to the relevant pages within the site.

Each H2 (6 of them) heads a synopsis of its own relevant topic and I then need to link into the page that fully covers that particular topic/subject.

My question is: will the dual role of a heading and link combination be detrimental in any way whether a penalty/loading or in the form of a lesser gain for the Heading and Link themselves compared to them being separated.

My concerns are the effects if any in Google, MSN and Yahoo search results in that order of priority.

[tedster]

The choice of words becomes even more important, because as an H2 it has impact on the page where it occurs, and then as anchor text those same words influence the target page.

Also a tech note -- make sure the anchor tag is nested inside the h2 tag, and not the other way around. anchor tags are inline, and cannot validly contain a block element like an h2 tag.

I have not noticed any particular search engine problems from this kind of mark-up, but I only use it once in a while.

<missing phrase added for clarity>

[edited by: tedster at 2:40 am (utc) on Dec. 15, 2005]

[piskie]

Thanks Tedster.

I had not considered the nesting aspect, so that helps a lot before I get too far ahead.

The Link text and Heading text aspect with respect to on page and target page, I have already got a cunning plan as to exploiting this. It is to do with themes being made up of related focus specialist (but related)topics. So I may be able to report something back about that in a few months or so. That of course depends on the mythical sandbox.

[kaled]

I have eight H1 links { display:block } on my homepage - no problems.

I don't expect or get many hits on my home page - I expect hits on inner pages.

Kaled.

[martinibuster]

It's valid code. According to the W3C, that is one of the ways it can be used. So if it's okay with the w3c, it should be okay with the search engines.

[piskie]

That's interesting Kaled, but why would you want so many H1 tags in one page in view of the W3C reccommended Headings structure? I am not criticising, just asking out of curiosity.

martinbuster you think the same as me, but I am a little apprehensive as this is a new site and if I agravate Google, it could mean a deep sandboxing with a slow climb. One H1 with six H2s I am OK with, it is just linking all six H2s that I am nervous about.

[kaled]

Each heading is for a resume of an interior area (since my site is software each area relates to a program).

Each heading is also a link for both convenience of the user and SEO (but I don't think the SEO benefit is noticable, if it exists at all).

I'm working on a site redesign at the moment and I may switch the H1s to H2s since the new home page will have a whole-site-related H1, however, I have yet to take a decision on this.

With regard to structure, in my current design, each H1 is equally important and all are at the outermost level therefore I don't consider this to be incorrect in any way, but I accept some people would disagree - but who cares?

Kaled.