<h1> Tags and SEO

[kenroar]

I have read posts by some who say that changing a few words in their <h1> tags has caused their rankings to rise. That brings a question. On my main index page, I put current events in the <h1> tags. This means the heading changes on a weekly basis. For example, my website is related to art education but I might have something about an upcoming event or holiday such as, "Spring is Almost Here." Should I scrap this altogether and keep the same text in the <h1> tag such as "Art Education Updates?" Do I have to make sure that all the changing <h1> tags have optimized key words in them?

Another related question. I have an art lesson that is short in nature and is therefore called a "bell ringer." On these short lessons I might have in the <h1> "Car Drawing Bell Ringer." Will this cause that page to rank higher on keywords related to bells when my site has nothing to do with bells? I like my <h1> tags to be descriptive but may need to change them if Google puts that much emphasis on them. Any ideas?

[aakk9999]

What is happening with your home page ranking? Does it fluctuate when H1 changes?
Can you see any difference in traffic or in number of impressions in Queries section of WMT?

Also, do you currently rank for bell ringers or are you just theoretically concerned?

[kenroar]

I have been changing the <h1> tags on that page for about a year now and everything was the same until this past Friday when I saw a 35% drop in traffic. I haven't recovered since that point so I was trying to narrow down the problem.

No, I don't rank for bell ringers because I am about to upload those lessons. I'm trying to get a handle on how <h1> tags effect traffic and get a better handle on how Google handles the text in those brackets.

[JD_Toims]

Personally, I would keep the "base" of the page the same and have a <section> [or <aside>] for "upcoming events" or things of the same nature that change often, either of which can have it's own H1, but I would definitely keep those separate from the "main page" or "main topic of the page", either with the use of a <section> or <aside> depending on the exact topic and situation.

[kenroar]

Thanks JD!

[Robert Charlton]

Personally, I would keep the "base" of the page the same and have a <section> [or <aside>] for "upcoming events" or things of the same nature that change often

kenroar - I saw your post in the Updates and SERP Changes thread about your steady drop, looked at your earlier posting history, and came to this thread.

I think what JD_Toims is saying is very important advice. I think that announcements should be asides or subsections, but they should not be the main focus of your page. Changing the page focus every month is a big confusion to Google, which is only a machine. If your site is about widget education, you really want to have a consistent body of content on your page that describes widget education, in a consistent and relevant vocabulary... not keyword stuffed, but at least containing the vocabulary you're targeting in the same way from month to month.

I've always insisted that clients put announcements in a fairly small section in the right hand column. With html5, you can also go to an <aside>. Don't put announcements up at the top, though, unless you expect a lot of current linking to the topic.

Perhaps a blog or news site, driven by fresh and ever changing-content can change its home page content and expect inbound traffic on that topic... but, unless your site is a blog, and topical content is what's most important, I don't think that constant change is what you should be doing.

As JD_Toims suggests, you need to keep the "base" of your page the same, and the base of a page is not the bottom of the page; it's the introduction.

I have been changing the <h1> tags on that page for about a year now and everything was the same until this past Friday when I saw a 35% drop in traffic. I haven't recovered since that point so I was trying to narrow down the problem.

I can't say why you are changing, except to say that I'm sensing that what's happened recently is that sites which were ranking because of inbound links are, for whatever reason, no longer ranking for them... which might be indicating that those links are counting for less because they've been devalued... or it may be that Google is weighting or parsing either inbound links or onpage content (or both in combination) differently.

In any event, it's not likely just the h1 tag... Again, if you're changing that, it's likely that you're changing the introductory material on your homepage. Perhaps Google has changed how it looks at fresh content. Think more about your content, and less simply about the h1.

I'd also evaluate all key Panda site performance factors (things like loading speed), and take a quick look at your backlinks... just in case your site has been slipping or Google has been moving the bar.

[Digital expertt]

Yes H1 do helps in ranking because H1 is the most word which gives idea about your webpage to the search engines or crawlers. Since you’ve dynamic H1 which anyways doesn’t helps you in rankings because dynamic H1 is not readable to crawlers.
And answer about your “car drawing bell ringer” ranking against bells in impossible because after hummingbird update google not only check out for specific keywords but also take into the consideration about the surrounding words. For eg: for a query in google “ which is the closest apple store in my location? The result would be Apple store location if you’ve shared your location with location instead of returing Apple (fruit) information.

[kenroar]

It looks like I'm going to have to reconsider always changing the heading and information on the main page. I've been changing it to make it appear fresh, but I can see where it would confuse Google.

[aristotle]

I've always been under the impression that <h1> is for the main header at the top of the page, and should only be used once. If you use it more than once, it dilutes its significance. The other tags <h2>, <h3>, etc exist for a purpose, and I've always found them to be very useful for introducing sub-divisions and sections of a page.