header tags

<h1> through <h6>

[WebMan61]

Does it make a differnce which one you use? Does the <h6> tag get as much respect as the <h1> or does it lose weight as the header size decreases?

[Mohamed_E]

I would very much expect the boost to go down with increased number in Hx tag.

<h1>Widgets</h1> says "This entire page is about widgets", so this is an important page for someone looking for widgets.

<h6>Widgets</h6> says "This sub-sub-sub...section buried deep in my page is about widgets". So OK, this page does contain stuff about widgets, but not as its main subject.

[lachtzu]

I read an article recently about optimizing for Inktomi that suggested using the <h3> vs the <h1>, along with other formatting guidelines. The article was on a SEO newsletter that I respect ( I don't think I'm allowed to give the actual name). The writer claimed that experience had shown optimizing for Inktomi yielded excellent results in Google too. Ever heard of this?

A related thought is the <h1> can be rendered too big, unless formatted in CSS. I know that making <h1> look like normal text could be considered spam, but what about making it a bit smaller, changing color/font, etc.? Can that go against SE guidelines?

[agerhart]

The Writer [webmasterworld.com]

The Article/Interview [searchengineblog.com]

[willybfriendly]

SO why an H3? Is this a relic from day not being able to style an H1 to a reasonable size, or is there evidence that an H3 actually produces better results?

WBF

[Mohamed_E]

When a statement simply does not make sense I ignore it. I, for one, have no intention of starting my pages with an h3 header.

[lachtzu]

yep - that was the exact article!

So from the subsequent posts I gather that:

a) there's no evidence that an H3 tag is better than an H1 tag, rather the opposite is true

&

b) reasonable CSS formatting of the H1 is a search engine friendly technique

[makemetop]

Simple answer to the question. I don't like using .css to redefine size of header fonts - so I use <h3> for neatness. I've never seen it make a jot of major difference, if it is the largest header in the hierarchy I use, over an <h1>.

But the article was about the way I do it. By all means choose other ways.

[killroy]

Of course it won't validate to a strict html tandard, andd therfore, strictly speaking, is invalid. Acording to the standard, a page MUST have at mostone h1, and each heading must be one less or equal to the previous one.

SN