Is <Title> = <H1> considered Spam by Google?

[VikramLashkari]

hi friends,
I am bit confused as i had read somewhere that if my Title of the Page and my <H1> tag are same then it is condisered as SPAM by google. I want to know till what extent it is correct.

Thanks

[ugnius]

myth

[VikramLashkari]

hi,
so what do u mean my "Myth". Do u mean it is just a false belief. or It is half true and half false.

Please clear my doubt.

thanks

[suggy]

Let's face it, it's logical for your title to be pretty similar to the main heading - which is what <h1> is supposed to be.

People use h1...h6 as if they are text formatting (sizing) commands. They are infact signposts in your document and part of good document structure. So, given that your page title is supposed to describe what the document is about and your <h1> is supposed to describe what the content is about at the highest level, isn't it logical for them to be near identical?

[VikramLashkari]

hi suggy,
I am still not clear. my Page Title is exactly same as my <h1> because mine is dynamic site. So i am using the same field to display PageTitle and <H1> tag.
So do u think i must change my pageTitle by adding extra words to it or i should left it like as it is.

[elmarpanzenberger]

as the two other guys above stated: myth!
If your page is about pink widgets it is quite obvious that your pagetitle is pink widgets and that even your h1 is pink widgets.
These aren't the things that blow you away from Google.

[VikramLashkari]

cool elmarpanzenberger,
u r right. My site is about Mobile Accessories. so if our Pagetitle ="Blue Fuzzy Widgets" then it is obvious that our <H1> tag will also be "Blue Fuzzy Widgets" EXactly same as PageTile....cool dear..very logical...
I think i must not afraid now to use the PageTitle=<H1>....It is rational and logical to use both same,....

[edited by: ciml at 5:29 pm (utc) on June 24, 2005]
[edit reason] Examplified [/edit]

[Wizard]

But there is another myth: if your path finished with ping_widgets.html, for example, www.example.com/offers/pink_widgets.html, it would be considered spam.

I don't know if _this_ myth is true or false, I have seen examples where pages with it were penalized, but they might have been penalized for example for too high keyword density or just sandboxed.

But if Google uses bayesian filtering, won't it give some spamming points in all cases we discuss in this thread?

[VikramLashkari]

hi wizard,
yes my page name is same what we discuss. It is www.example.com/products/blue_fuzzy_widgets.aspx

So please tell me this type of pagename with pageTitle="Blue Fuzzy Widgets" and <H1>="Blue Fuzzy Widgets" is considereed as spam.

My Keyword density is not very high it is under 1.5% only.

So please friend give me your view that is this SPAM or nor?

thanks

[edited by: ciml at 5:29 pm (utc) on June 24, 2005]
[edit reason] Examplified [/edit]

[suggy]

As for filename, well I don't know about that, but I do use literal filenames with the product name in them, which is also in the title and h1 - as discussed previous ly. Again, all logical. Why should you call the document after some meanlingless product code?

Anyway, I would say it should be highly unlikely that the title and the h1 and filename are EXACTLY the same.

<title>Blue Widgets by The Blue Widget Co</title>
<h1>Blue Widgets</h1>
blue-widgets.html

Just to totally dispell the myth re title and h1 - the WC3 org has identical attributes on their pages.

[andye]

Not a problem for the tens of thousands of pages that I manage, all with that setup...

hth, a.

[Dynamoo]

Obviously you don't want to overdo it - keep the TITLE and H1 tags fairly brief. Putting 200 words into a <H1></H1> tag *is* likely to get you penalised.

Don't overdo the keyword density either - that can cause real problems, but other than that.. yes, it's a myth.

[Clint]

Dynamoo, do you (or anyone) know just what is acceptable keyword density on a page?

[Wizard]

I think the same H1 and title is not spam, however I'd prefer to add a few words in title or rephrase it, just to be safer.

The penalty risk begins, if there are more simultanous factors involved: if the phrase from h1 and title appears exactly in all alt attributes of images, achieves big density in text and appears in anchor text of thousand links from blogs - _this_ can be called spam, but still, it is not certain where Google places the threshold.

[santip]

I prefer using file-name.htm instead of file_name.html, in my opinion google doesn't like the underscore.

[Clint]

The - Vs. the _ is an interesting topic. At first, where I had URL's with multiple words, I use the dash (-) to separate words in the URL. Later I heard the the underscore (_) was preferred because that was used mostly to separate literal words whereas the - was used to separate words that may originally have the - in them (like connected words such as data-base, user-base, top-notch, high-end, etc.). So, I have both types of pages now, and I haven't noticed any differences as to what an SE prefers. Sometimes a _ page will be higher, sometimes a - page will be higher.

[Reid]

The reason - is preferred over _ is because links are underlined and people will not be able to see the _
But then again how many will actually type the URL of the page and I removed link underlines with CSS anyway.

[Brian]

I don't think this idea is exactly a myth. There has been a time when this repetition - possibly combined with other stuff - has seemed to trip an small over-optimization penalty on my site. Whether that filter is still in place, or what, I don't know, but I do think there has been some tinkering in that area. That's just my impression from a while back.

[rfgdxm1]

><Title> = <H1> is considered as Spam in Google?

My guess would be no, because I can think of totally innocent cases where this would happen. Such as a teenager creates a hobby site, and puts the site name in the home page title and <h1> tag. This likely happens often by webmasters who know nothing about SEO.

[jgbmarc]

I have a quick relevant question:

People often refer to 'H1' tags.. do they mean content that is truly in <H1>HI Tags</H1>..? Or do they mean the first text content accessible by the spiders on any given web document?

H1 seems to used loosely.

Thank you.

[walkman]

I don't buy it. Chances are that whowever thinks he was penalized for <Title> = <H1>, had a lot more things to worry about as far as Google is concerned.

Now if the url=title=<h1>=anchor text.....maybe ;)

[treeline]

People here referring to <H1> tags mean literally text that is inside an <H1>, not something abstract. This is often, but not necessarily, the first text visible on a page. These tags are important enough that they are mentioned here a lot, and pretty much always seem to be referring to the real deal.

[birdstuff]

I have numerous #1 rankings for pages that use the <title> text as the <H1> text, and lots of those #1's are for very competitive terms. It's a myth.

[VikramLashkari]

hi walkman,
>>Now if the url=title=<h1>=anchor text.....maybe ;)

To some extent my page is like this. Say for example .

A) URL="http://www.mydomain.com/Pink_Widgets_Sim_Free.aspx"

B) Title="Pink Widgets Sim Free - Buy Online from Mydomain.com"

C) <H1> ="Pink Widgets Sim free"

D) <anchor text>="Pink Widgets Sim free"

To give more detail about my page,i had not over loaded my page with "Pink Widgets Sim Free". It is just appearing 5-7 times including <title>,<h1>,<anchor>.

So what do u think about this.

[edited by: lawman at 4:47 pm (utc) on June 24, 2005]
[edit reason] Examplified [/edit]

[Reid]

that is not spam that is just good clean coding.

here is some spam:

Look! it's the Pink WidgetPink Widget 6230i Sim free. See the Pink Widget Sim free run. Run Pink Widget Sim free run. That's a good Pink Widget Sim free. The Pink Widget Sim free cannot run though, the Pink Widget Sim free is a camera, it has no legs. If the Pink Widget Sim free had legs it could run but the Pink Widget Sim free can't and doesn't.
<h1>Pink Widget Sim free</h1>
This is the Pink Widget Sim free. The Pink Widget Sim free has sleek lines and special Pink Widget Sim free tecnology.

[edited by: lawman at 4:49 pm (utc) on June 24, 2005]

[VikramLashkari]

hi Reid,

>that is not spam that is just good clean coding.

Thats gr8 that you too believe that the code which i am doing is not spam.

One question i have to ask about SERPs, so where do u think i should ask, I mean i have noticed some site which is coming up in most for the terms so can anyone just help me out in knowing the core thing what they are doing. The site is <snip>. I have few queries about how they come up,so please if anyone feel that this will be the good place to go ahead then do reply. I will start asking my doubts and tell u what i have noticed.

Thanks to you all for giving support

[edited by: lawman at 4:50 pm (utc) on June 24, 2005]
[edit reason] Please Do Not Give Your Web Address Per TOS [/edit]

[VikramLashkari]

hi,
So may i start new thread or start asking my queries here.

[walkman]

VikramLashkari,
you might want to edit the post. No specifics are allowed, even though you aren't doing it to spam.

[VikramLashkari]

hi walkman,

>VikramLashkari,
>you might want to edit the post. No specifics are allowed, even though you aren't doing it to spam.

I didn't get u, what do u mean by above post? I am just requesting members whether they can support me on this thread or i start a new thread for my queries, and i am asking this because my queries are related to the TOPIC which is going on, and if i start new thread i have to again explain whole thing in that thread.
I hope u get me ..

[Reid]

vikram - it is ok to join a thread that is on topic with your concerns - we are all here to learn from each other.