H1 and title

If these are the same, am I spamming?

[limbo]

I have been told this might be construed as spam. I happen to think it is a very good way to get the page content across - but thats me, not the SE's, So is it:

Bad practice?
Spam?
Too Obvoiusly SEO?

[labeler2003]

Since my H1 title IS the title for the page, there are times when my H1 title is exactly the same as the page title. I've never seen a problem with this.

However, I don't intentionally make them the same. It just sometimes works out that way. My H1 title, in its wording and position on the page, is designed to attract the attention of someone who is quickly evaluating the page. My page titles are designed to grab attention in search listings, and they typically include at least two of my tageted keywords for that page. As a result, in many cases my page title is longer than my H1 title.

For me, including keywords in the page title comes naturally. They don't need to be forced in. The page title is about the page and I want it to attract people who are interested in the page topic. So the key words that end up in the page title just flow naturally out of the page topic.

[Import Export]

If your title is accurately describing the page as a whole, and your heading tag is summing up the page content, then there should be no reason to worry. I've heard about OOP for abusing this, but never heard anything bad about accurately describing the page, and content for users.

[limbo]

Thanks folks.

You've given me food for thought.

[Gruntled]

What about creating static URLs with keywords in the name, e.g., ../..blue-widget.htm?

[willybfriendly]

Well, I certainly hope it is not considered spamming given what W3C has to say about it

If the document is basically stand-alone, for example Things to See and Do in Geneva, the top-level heading is probably the same as the title.

If it is part of a collection, for example a section on Dogs in a collection of pages about pets, then the top level heading should assume a certain amount of context; just write <h1>Dogs</h1> while the title should work in any context: Dogs - Your Guide to Pets.

I have always tried to follow these recommendations. Seems to work.

WBF