H tags to structure site map? - Part II

[Tastatura]

earlier thread (now locked)
[webmasterworld.com...]
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I was just looking at Google's Gears API page and noticed that they use multiple H1 tags - one for the main document body and few for left column (nav).
1st h1 -> Google Gears API Developer's Guide (Beta)
2nd h1 -> API Reference
3rd h1 -> Resources

Taking into account comments from the earlier thread, I wonder if there is something to it, or simply page developer for this product using his/her own dev style not communicating with the rest of organization...

[Marshall]

Tastatura,

H tags generally suggest the importance of an item (hence heading) and it is also why it is strongly recommended you never use an H tag for merely bolding something. Over-use or misuse can be seen as spamming and could penalize you in search engines. The best think is to plan out your hierarchy before you do the layout. in short, use the H tags in the manner in which they are intended.

On a side note, if you change the size of the H tag display with CSS, that should not affect anything other than the display. So if you want all your H tags say at 1em, that’s fine. But remember by doing so, it diminishes the visual purpose of the tags, especially for the visually impaired. Personally, I always make sure there is at least a .25em difference in H sizes, but that's me.

Hope this helps. :)

[Tastatura]

Marshall,
those are good points - doc structure with 'h' tags was discussed and illustrated in the thread referenced at the top of my original post.

I 're-started' the topic mainly to show that Google is using more then one H1 tag, which for most part goes against conventional wisdom (again the referenced thread has some good points in there).

Is Google "telling" us something about their view of proper/preferred document structure or is it just a fluke?

[Marshall]

Remember, Google does not have to rank itself. It reminds me of something I learned at CMU: there's the right way, the wrong way, and the CMU way. Just substitute Google for CMU :) But that does not make it right. Stick with industry accepted practices to avoid problems.

[jtara]

I've never understood the logic of "only one H1 tag on a page". It seems to me that some are trying to force H1 into the role of page title.

Perhaps Google sees how silly that is, and are thumbing their noses at this senseless convention.

Great minds obviously think alike. :)