Do Header Tags Affect Rankings ?

[doughayman]

We all know how Header tags (or header elements) help delineate the importance of certain sections of a page relative to other sections. I equate the use of header tags to providing an outline of sorts (of the page) to readers.

Does the judiciious use (and not overuse) of Headers (<H1>, <H2>, etc.) help pages' ranking in the SERPs, relative to the same pages that do not use header tags ?

For example, let's assume I have a page called "History of Blue Widgets", and I have 2 subections to the page, "Blue Widgets from 1900-1999" and "Blue Widgets from 2000-present".

Question # 1:
------------

Aside from the readability and organization aspects associated with using headers, from a SERP perspective, am I better off having:

(A)

H1 Tag for "History of Blue Widgets"
H2 Tag for "Blue Widgets from 1900-1999"
H2 Tag for "Blue Widgets from 2000-present"

OR

(B)

Having custom, centered, bolded pieces of text that delineate each of the above (with the H1 equivalent perhaps in a larger font size than the H2 equivalents above) ?

Question # 2:
------------

Assuming that I have implemented (B) above, and rank reasonably well for that page already. Aside from the readability benefits associated with using Header Tags, can I benefit SERP-wise from making the switch to the use of Header Tags (Option A above) ?

Thank you in advance !

[tedster]

The H1 and H2 elements are reinforcing signals for the relevance of a web page. They are not a magic bullet, but in tight competitive situations, they might help a page to rank better than a custom styled text will. One of many, many signals that Google watches.

Heading elements are a best practice, IMO - there's no reason not to use them, and they enforce a kind of semantic discipline on your page template. You can use CSS to style them any way you need to fit with your page's visual needs.

[doughayman]

Thanks for your reply, Tedster.

[aristotle]

I think it might help the page's rankings for search phrases that contain words that are also in the headers.
For example, if you added the header: "Modern Blue Widgets"
it might help the ranking for that particular search phrase, and other phases containg the word "modern".

I've been trying to use this technique on some pages of my sites, and have gotten slight rankings boosts for most of the targeted words and phrases. Of course I don't know for sure what produced the boost, but adding the headers appears to be the most likely cause.

In any case, I agree that it's a good idea to include headers for organization and readibility, especially in long articles.