Do H1 tags even matter?

Some sites don't use them; why?

[MrWumpus]

I know of some websites that rank #1 for some very competitive keywords yet they do not use H1 (or H2, etc) tags at all. Instead they use style sheets to format their headers to appear like H1, H2, etc. But there isn't an <Hx> tag to be found anywhere on the site.

Obviously this was done on purpose by someone who knows what they are doing. These are commercial sites, after all. It would have been easier for them to use the tags, so I'm assuming this is or at least was an SEO trick.

If it is a trick, what are they tricking?

[LifeinAsia]

Obviously this was done on purpose by someone who knows what they are doing. These are commercial sites, after all.

There are certainly commercial sites that are done by people who don't know what they're doing. :)

I would say that they rank #1 IN SPITE OF not using Hx tags, not BECAUSE OF not using them.