Questions about seo'ing a blog - h1's and such - please

blogs and h1

[Tomseys]

I'm setting up a wordpress blog and the standard template makes it so every page has the same h1. Usually, the h1 is the name of the site/blog, in text, and it's included in the header and this repeats on every page. You can make it link back to the home.

So, if the name of your blog is for example, the car loan blog, this would be the h1 on every page. Or if the domain name is carloanblog.com, for example, you could have this be the h1. It is the title in the header.

Is it ok to have the same h1 on every page? I would like to incorporate keywords in my h1 so I was thinking instead of naming it domainname.com, as an example, I was thinking - the domain name blog - this way I get some keywords in there, between the "the" and "blog".

I'm just not sure that a search engine would "like" seeing the same h1 on every page, even if its not pure keywords.

Is it ok to have the same h1 on every page - the other elements would be different (h2 different on every page, title and metatags different etc)?

Sorry for being repetitive or longwinded.

[caveman]

If you did that with title tags you'd probably have trouble ranking for that exact phrase.

To be honest I'm not sure about the same issue in H1's. My guess: it'll be a problem. But I've never tried it to find out.

In any event you're right to ask about it, because it's poor SEO: Does nothing to help the SE's understand what each page is about.

Anyone else have direct experience with this?

[Tomseys]

yeah my instinct says it wouldn't be right - but it seems there is no easy way around it with that system, unless I kill h1 off and use a header graphic, and then let h2 exist as it natually does (it is the title of each blog post). But then my next question is - is it ok that h2 exists but without there having been an h1 before it? If I change h2 to be the new h1 in the php template thing, I would have multiple h1s on one page because there may be say 10 posts on a page (the homepage).

at least I feel better in that someone understands my question.

[Tomseys]

Seems many seo blogs do use the same h1 repetively, though they definitely dont use pure keywords. Maybe it's not a problem.

[Tomseys]

Actually, what might be the problem is not so much using the same h1, an h1 with keyword balance - not pure keywords - but linking it to the homepage. Maybe it sets off on over-op penalty - because I can find blogs ranking ok, but the repetitive h1 they are using is not a link (to the homepage). I have seen other blogs, nice pr, not ranking on easily rankable keywords and linking the h1 with the keywords to the homepage.

Maybe it's just a coincidence and this is not true but I suspect there is something to it.

[caveman]

> is it ok that h2 exists but without there having been an h1 before it?

Been there, done that. No issues there ... though of course it's one step shy of ideal from an SEO perspective.

Can anyone confirm that constant H1's sitewide are/are not an issue - or at least offer experience with same?

[Tomseys]

just to follow up - I have seen some sites using a linked to index same h1 tag on all pages - and ranking very well on competitive keywords - so I'm convinced it's not a problem - the trick seems to be that the h1 must not start on a targetted keyword

anyways, I will experiment with this at least with the blog

thanks caveman

[Robert Charlton]

Is it ok to have the same h1 on every page?

I guess I'm not getting something... Why do you want to to have the same h1 on every page? It makes absolutely no sense to me.

[Tomseys]

thats the way the blog is by default - its used kind of as a site logo, which appears on all pages...

[Tomseys]

one problem though is that the h1 would be quickly followed by an h2 with no content between them - this might not be good.

Perhaps I'll just off the headers or just off the h1 let the h2's stay as the head of each post. I could change those to h1, but then the index pages would have multiple h1's because there would be multiple posts on that page.

[Robert Charlton]

thats the way the blog is by default - its used kind of as a site logo, which appears on all pages...

OK, now I understand. Like caveman, I'm not sure, because it's not a structure that ever would have occurred to anyone thinking about constructing a page rationally.

My gut instinct says that this is going to be a distraction for the search engines. Don't know whether you can overcome it by the h2 followed by strong relevant content (ie, related to the title/h2 keywords), but I'd guess the h1 is going to be a chunk of "noise" at the least.

its used kind of as a site logo, which appears on all pages...

My site logos are generally graphics, and I'd make a big effort to see if the template can be changed to call up a graphic instead of the h1.

Perhaps I'll just off the headers or just off the h1 let the h2's stay as the head of each post.

The syntax of your question is a little garbled here, but if you mean you can turn off the headers, or just leave that field blank, definitely do that. Starting the page with h2s is fine.

Should the h1 content insist on appearing in the titles as well, I'd get another system.

[Tomseys]

I guess thats what I will do. I will remove the h1 and replace it with a graphic. I will let the post headings remain h2s.

[Tomseys]

For the search engine optimizers out there, would you guys agree that using the h1 as a same sitewide title logo/header is a bad idea seo-wise?

Should the h1 be unique on every page? What do you base that on?

I'm asking because I'm hearing from some who do Wordpress work that using a sitewise header title as an h1 is correct - even seo-wise.

I have always read that the h1 should describe the page (as opposed to site - unless its the index h1 we are talking about) and then other headers provide further subsection information. A logo is used to show a site wide title or brand.

Is this correct? Has google or some standards board written anything on it? If it is correct, how can I prove that to someone at WP?

[Tomseys]

can someone point me to some well regarded written down search engine optimization principles, preferable by an an seo standards board, that addresses h1 and that it should be unique on each page and not used literally as a same site-wise header? (like a site header graphic).

thanks!

[zulu_dude]

I have seen some sites using a linked to index same h1 tag on all pages

Is a link enclosed in H1 tags more effective (from an SEO point of view) than a link in a normal text size?

[Tomseys]

I dont know but what worries me is having the same h1 on all pages, often immediately followed by an h2 with no content below the same site wide h1. The fix for this is an onclick code to make the header graphic a link if I want to get rid of the h1. But it doesnt seem to be spiderable.