Modified <h1> tags gone- a no no?

sorry for the repeat, searching came back leaving me unsure

[Helpmebe1]

I take it <h1> tags are a done deal? I wont bother to use css style but would rather modify the font size of the <h1> tag .. would be used once on each page through overwriting some program.. long story.. would take me 5 minutes to change every headline in my site though and go to using a <h1> tag though.. I hear mixed things.. one that it dosent really help.. and two that its risky when you modify the <h1> font size...

Can anyone confirm? I dont think I will use them but want a second opinion...

Thanks...

[johnraphone]

Yes, I am wondering the same thing myself. I think right now, <h1> tags do help, but the tag is being over abused and isn't used that often as it was years ago. I wouldn't be surprised if Google removes the <h1> boost.

[Helpmebe1]

John,
Welcome aboard.. I myself am going to leave it out.. theirs to much chatter about it for google to not of done something about the boost it once gave...

[fathom]

H tags are headlines with H1 being the top headline.

Modification of the size (within reason) will not get you in problem - overuse can.

External CSS are best to define H tags simply because you remove code off your page and file size of the page matters a great deal.

I have never seen a 200K pages, and very few 100K pages at #1 -- there is a reason for this.

The boost matters not -- the file size matters more.

[Helpmebe1]

fathom,
Thanks..that is exactly what I am checking for as we speak..a site to check the size of my pages as I am adding a third column, I want to make sure the page size stays small.. do you know of any places to check the size of a page? It should be around 25k a page, am I not right?

[Sasquatch]

I have a 225k page that is #1 on several searches, and is front page on many others. Of course it only shows up as 101k on google because that is all they cache and/or look at.

The freshbot also hits it just about daily even though it is in cron.weekly to change. I need to get the IMS code in that one too.

Has anyone really studied whether size is an issue? Or is it really just that other issues like keyword density might just have more favorable conditions with the smaller file size?

[fathom]

do a search on netmechanic, as well the companion site to WebmasterWorld -- SEW [searchengineworld.com] has a number of tools available that may help as well.

Sasquatch although possible it is very rare. If you look at any extremely competitive single keywords and compare file sizes it is even rare to find 50k pages at the top.

[edited by: fathom at 12:54 am (utc) on Oct. 13, 2002]

[Helpmebe1]

Thanks Fathom! Their does seem to be quit a bit of controversy if graphics add to the size or if it is just coding that they count? my pages are about 17k on average in the google cache but i just added two 19k images to a third column on the page..am wondering what kind of effect this will have?

[fathom]

Remember like my suggestion of external CSS, all graphics are external to the web page as well.

Comment tags <!-- dropping all of these everywhere on your pages is also a good way of reducing file size -->

They serve no purpose what-so-ever.

[buckworks]

I use H1 tags on all my pages and use CSS to style them, with no problems. I use the tag for the line that's the main heading for the page, and the CSS controls font, color, size, margins etc. In other words, no tricks, just using it exactly as it's supposed to be used. (Hey Nick_W, I've been paying attention!)

Suggestion: take a look at how your page looks with CSS turned off. If the structure of the information makes sense when viewed that way, you should be fine.

[Helpmebe1]

Thanks guys! It does seem that graphics dont add to the size of the page.. well hardly.. been testing them using netmechanic with the 2 images added and comparing the same page using googles cache of the page and it seems to be that it only added a small tiny fraction onto the page..not much at all..hardly even worth mentioning.. gearing up for the holidays and adding a bunch of add on items in a third column of all my pages..just wanted to know if this would hurt me because of the new page size..apparently not though...

As for H1.. it seems that its not worth the trouble of adding? So i think i will leave them out for now..

[Visit Thailand]

I use H1 and also change the font size, I would recommend using them as it tells bots what is the real title on a page, just do not over do it, keep the title short, and accurate to that page, and keep the font size larger than any other font on that page and you should be fine.

[Helpmebe1]

Visit Thailand,
Do you see a big difference in using it though? I am hearing that people arent seeing that big of a difference.. Also I am seeing alot of people saying it will land a penalty..