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If you write a heading and it's the main heading for the page, indicate that fact by using <h1> tags.
Regardless of what Google makes of it.
If Google delivered more visitors to your site if you adopted a policy of popular misspellings, would you start deliberately misspelling copy?
I done a few tests reagrding the impact of text size, and it doesn't appear to boost a site much, if at all.
<h1>Keyword rich short phrase</h1>
Use your keyword(s) prominently ie: near the beginning of the phrase.
Use font size +1 in your link text and use your keyword in the hypertext link as well.
<font size="+1"><a href="http://hypertext_link.url">Link Text</a></font>
DON'T monkey with font size in the <H1>. It could be penalized as spamming.
Its well settled that styling <hx> tags will not bring any penalty. We've been talking about this here at WebmasterWorld for at least a couple of years, and no one has ever reported being penalized for it.
For instance:
<H3><img/bullet.gif>Widget Resources</H3>
Its well settled that styling <hx> tags will not bring any penalty.
Thanks for settling that. I read elsewhere here that it would draw a penalty.
During this last Google update, I noticed more sites getting into the top 10 for search terms that are not in H1 tags.
So you would say that all other on page factors were equal between these sites?
- Keyword density, valid code vs. unvalid code, keyword position, for example.
And that off page factors were relatively equal:
- The anchor text within the sites to it's internal pages and the inbound anchor text from other sites could be considered equal?
There are so many variables involved, that I don't think you have the cause right in your statement above:
We use, as does the #2 site, several on and off page factors to get ourselves into that position - there is no trump card - they even use a hidden <div> stuffed full of keyword text (something some people would call 'spam'). It's a mix of things, some are subtle, some are more important.
you are right. One cannot draw conclusions by comparing different top ten listings for just one variable.
However, if one makes detailed investigations of the weight of headings, bold, strong, font size, italic, emphasise and so on (leaving the other variables as anchor text, PR or title unchanged) one will find that there was a reweighting (comparing the current situation with that of one or two years ago). This doesn't mean that there is a penalty for a tag. However, the order of importance has changed significantly and the situation isn't the same as some years ago.
Thanks!...
So you are saying that perhaps where before HX tags held some weight, they dont hold as much in 'todays algo'.
Now, maybe in situations where, all other things being equal, HX text was winning out over bold text (for example), there is no longer a boost for HX text and as things level off the HX sites lower a bit? (and therefore warrenk's observation)
To be clear - what has happened is that there is less significance for HX text now, and that it may be considered roughly equal to the use of Bold, Italic.. etc.
With respect to the thread subject - this part - "Which is better?"
This depends on what is more important to you - SEO or Writing good code.
IMHO - there are enough other factors out there that work harder for you (i.e. off page factors) than using Bold (or whatever) for titles rather than HX tags - I would stick with writing valid and semantically correct code (see link below) until you arrive at a situation where things are so close between you and your competitors that you have to 'write sloppy code' (imo).
Interesting, on topic link:
h*tp://www.simplebits.com/archives/2003/08/27/simplequiz_part_i_headings.html
This depends on what is more important to you - SEO or Writing good code.
I've said this before but it bears repeating. The "new" Google seems to be rewarding good page structure. SEOs design for pageranks' own sake. The pages have to appeal to the customer to convert that traffic into sales.
If you want to know how to design Google friendly pages take a look at their SERPs. It won't take an hour of analyzing and creating a clone Google page to see what they consider good page design.
SEOs design for pageranks' own sake
I design to fininsh first in the serps.
I get links to finish on top first and for pagerank second and then maybe look at my link structure to pass around the PR that I get the way I want (and I suck at it and it's still an urban myth for me).
I don't think I'm alone in the view I express above, and maybe you meant high in the serps by saying 'pagerank', I just wanted to be clear.
The "new" Google seems to be rewarding good page structure
= H1 for headers. ;-]
Question: Does including an image inside a <H#> tag dilute it's efficiency?For instance:
<H3><img/bullet.gif>Widget Resources</H3>
Can't answer your question directly, although you don't necessarily need to do it like that. You can do this:
h3 {
display: inline;
padding-left: 20px;
background: url(blk.gif) left no-repeat;
}
Where the padding is the width of your image (plus a bit more, if you like). Also, if this is an element of a list, you should be using UL/OL and LI, and referencing the bullet there. :-)
Simply for SEO purposes, if you use that bullet a lot in your pages, imagine how much markup you'll save by doing it with the CSS - less style markup in your code = a greater content/markup ratio which is damn fine for the SE's.
Of course, there is the side of the tracks that would rather have that bullet markup to stuff it with keyword alt-text... ;-]
I don't think I'm alone in the view I express above, and maybe you meant high in the serps by saying 'pagerank', I just wanted to be clear.
That's not what I meant. Let's use an absurd actual example that I saw in another search engine a couple of years ago.
A real estate company had top ranking in the SERPs for a very popular three letter carnal topic. GREAT. They got top ranking for the very popular three letter carnal topic.
My question was "What good is that going to do a real estate agency"? Is it going to get you more listings because of the reference to the three letter carnal topic? If I get you to show me properties does that mean that the three letter carnal topic is thrown in as a freebie?
The three letter carnal topic DOESN'T give the searcher what they are looking for. They probably won't click it when they read that the title and description doesn't have anything to do with their prurient interest in the three letter carnal topic.
I feel the same way about building sites for PR. Sure,you need related inbound links to your site,but don't build just for PR. If you build just for PR then PR is what you'll get. Think the solution THROUGH. Why are you building the site? Even if you are at the top of the serps (and pure PR won't necessarily do that for you) what is going to make the visitor click your link instead of #2 or #3? What are they going to find when they DO click your link? Will they even read your page? Will they click anything on your page? Will you accomplish your goal?
I'll repeat myself again. Design for PR and PR is what you'll get. Design for top SERP listing and top SERP listing is what you'll get. Design for PR and top SERP listing and PR and top SERP listing is what you'll get. Try designing for your target visitor in order to generate intra-site clicks and that what you'll get. Combine all that with incentives to generate sales and you'll get sales.
It's not JUST PR,#1,inbound traffic,intra-site traffic or sales. It's ALL of them and maybe even more. There are many factors such as color preference and other psychological factors that induce sales action.
It's a lot like fishing. Two guys,identical boats and identical gear fish the same spot. One guy catches a boat load of fish. The other guy catches nothing. People like me spend hours trying to figure this one out.
What claus says below.
[edited by: mipapage at 11:16 am (utc) on Sep. 7, 2003]
>> If you write a heading and it's the main heading for the page, indicate that fact by using <h1> tags
That's exactly the purpose of the <h1> tags, and G will identify them as such - it's pretty good at interpreting web standards. The pages with large styled text are topping the serps for another reason than this text being the headline.
/claus
[edited by: claus at 11:09 am (utc) on Sep. 7, 2003]
