Rookie has question about <H> tags

find <H1> too big

[LateNight]

Hi,
I am not that savy with ccs yet, and I find the <H1> tag looks to big for my page. I start with <H2>....is there any disadvantage from a SEO perspective to not utilize <H1>? I was not even aware of the <H> tags until I read they are important for SEO. Thanks for your reply.

[moltar]

try using <h1 style="font-size: 15px">

or you can put it in a header between
<style>
.h1style { font-size: 15px }
</style>

and then in body you can just say this: <h1 class="h1style">

also you can put it all in external file...

[percentages]

Personally I think it looks like Google has devalued the use of <h1> tags. But they certainly don't do any harm, and Ms Google might change her mind again in the near future.

Follow the advice of moltar to use style sheets (inline or external) to make your <h1> tags appear presentable and you can't go far wrong ;)

[glengara]

I used to use H4, until I decided to have the page validate to W3C; (wouldn't swear to it, but it seems that to validate using H tags, you must kick off with H1.)
I then dropped all H tags for a while, and have now gone to using H1s modified by CSS.
A recent convert ;-)
<added> Seen very little change in positions though.</added>

[batdesign]

To validate you do need to use H tags in a cascading fashion, and you should only have one h1 tag.
It's ok to have several h2 or h3 tags though!

[moltar]

Actually, XHTML Transitional allows multiple H1 tags. I don't know about other langugaes though...

[Tor]

glengara:

...and have now gone to using H1s modified by CSS.

That works fine for us as well.. ;)

[glengara]

Probably too early to tell, but if anything, those new <H1> tags seem to have had a less than positive effect!
With a new convert's zeal, I decided to put the CSS on page, I know it adds a bit to page bloat, but it should give me an early indication if G starts viewing modified <H> tags negatively.

[LateNight]

glengara :

What gives you an indication css are bad for <H1>? Would I be better off using them unmodified?

[glengara]

Latenight, I'm not saying using CSS modified tags is bad, just that for me the addition of H1 tags has had no discernable positive effect.
The southerly change in positions is probably due to other factors.

[zoobie]

The highest ranked sites for my search words have been h2...heh heh..............eh?

[moltar]

I think all this google paranoia is getting out of hand...

H1 tags *are* HTML and it is Ok to use them. If we have CSS, why wouldn't we use it and apply to tags, after all it was designed to *modify* tags. I can say the same for "modified" divs and spans... and any other modified tag.

If google will start to dislike my H1, I won't care. And if enough people won't care, then it will like it again :) After all, Google depends on webmasters and not the opposite.

my 2 cents

[bekyed]

Well said moltar, just before me lol!

Bek

[shasan]

yeah, if you don't like the size of H1, you can redefine it in your CSS,

example from my stylesheet:

H1 {
FONT-SIZE: 15px;
}
H2 {
FONT-SIZE: 13px;
}
H3 {
FONT-SIZE: 12px;

That should fix the size and you can change the size to whatever you want.

Anyway, I think you're supposed to use <h> tags for SEO, correct me if I'm wrong. This way, they're a little nicer to look at.

cheers
shasan.

[glengara]

Well I've put my money where my mouth is, no hiding behind external CSS files for me!
Should also be one of the first to know if there is a sword of Damoclese ;-)