Hi
I have gotten into the habit of using h2 tags for all paragraph headings. When I write the paragraphs, for me their order of appearance in the overall text equates to their weighting, but for the sake of appearance I dont want to have diminishing h tags as I go down the article. Am I upsetting google or is it a minor detail overall?
Thanks
Megan posted this at 14:00—19th January 2007.
She has: 10,150 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
This would be a very minor detail for sarch engines. I think semantcially it's a hirearchy
H1
---- H2
---- H2
------ H3
------ H3
-----H2
It's not really how important that heading is, but where it appears in the document structure. I think it's expected that text lower down the page is less important, and I think search engines treat it that way too.
Megan
My web design blog
pisstaker posted this at 15:44—19th January 2007.
They have: 63 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
Thanks for that.
The Pisstakers run 3 satire blogs - tech, news and quirky - original articles & funny videos, cartoons & photos We do blog reviews too.
STwebmaster posted this at 16:18—19th January 2007.
They have: 20 posts
Joined: Jul 2004
Not necessarily. I have had several occurrences where pages on my website have ranked in the top 5 in Google serps for competitive keywords that where found toward the end of the page. Even the paragraph text shows up in the search results. I'm not sure why this is but it was unexpected and a bit surprising since I was also under the assumption that the lower down the page the less importance Google puts on the content. I noticed this has been happening some with MSN search also, though Yahoo appears to still put more value on content toward the top.
I also have to disagree with the placement of H tags being minor. Every little detail counts at some point. You can check the structer of your H tags on a page at the W3C site. If it shows it looks natural, you're in good shape. I personally include H1 through H6 on every one of my pages. Though this alone is unlikely to have any dramatic effect, I think combining it with HTML or XHTML that validates, plus CSS that validates, and structure that validates, it does make a difference in the end. This has proven to be the case for me anyway.
Think of it like this. If you have a competitor who "ties" on every level as far as the search results go, but your page has good validating structure, it may be just the element that breaks the tie and puts you on top. Due diligence. Leave NO STONE unturned.
pisstaker posted this at 16:41—19th January 2007.
They have: 63 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
I understand robots like h1 through h6, but it seems strange to end up with a tiny paragraph heading for a conclusion.
The Pisstakers run 3 satire blogs - tech, news and quirky - original articles & funny videos, cartoons & photos We do blog reviews too.
STwebmaster posted this at 17:03—19th January 2007.
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Joined: Jul 2004
I don't use h5 or h6 for paragraphs personally. I mainly use those for menu headings, or something less significant. Design wise, that's nothing CSS can't fix.
Megan posted this at 17:04—19th January 2007.
She has: 10,150 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Hi, sorry, I'm a little confused here. You disagree that the placement of header tags is minor yet you go on to say that "this alone is unlikely to have any dramatic effect". That's exactly what I said. It's a minor detail in terms of SE ranking factors, it won't have a dramatic effect. It *might* help a little bit. I also meant that in the context of the original question: what heading to use where and in what structure, not whether proper page structure is important or not.
I think this depends on how much time you have to put in. It would be much more worth your time to write quality content and go after quality one-way links than fussing over details of the page structure. (and I AM NOT saying that it's not important to put some effort into your code, all I'm saying is that it has it's place in the grand scheme of things).
It is true that proper document structure is important for many reasons. It may be true that proper document structure helps SEO a little bit. However, this is a controversial point in the SEO community. Some will say that W3C valid code and semantics have very little bearing on SEO, and that includes SEO guru Danny Sullivan (see this article on Page Ranking Factors as a reference - the things we are talking about here rank very low on their scale).
Megan
My web design blog
STwebmaster posted this at 17:14—19th January 2007.
They have: 20 posts
Joined: Jul 2004
Sorry Megan. That wasn't my intention. I was simply giving my point of view based on my own experiences. I agree with you that quality content both on site and off are going to be more important than your page structure, but my philosophy is in a competitive market ever tiny detail counts and is worth the time to get it right the first time.
Megan posted this at 17:22—19th January 2007.
She has: 10,150 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
But we agree on the point that this is a tiny detail, right? That's all we're talking about here
Whether you bother with that depends on your market and your time resources IMO.
Oh, about text lower down being important or not - I really wan't sure about that (thus the "I think's") .Actually, I do remember reading something not too long ago about there being no difference between text higher up and lower down (which sort of deflates the CSS vs. Tables advantage as far as SEO goes ...)
Megan
My web design blog
STwebmaster posted this at 17:37—19th January 2007.
They have: 20 posts
Joined: Jul 2004
Well...LOL, I think it may be relative. I think it will probably have no significant impact in general serps and in that case it's a tiny detail, unless you want that one minor edge that could put you one place ahead of your competitor in serps, then it's a major detail. So yeah, I guess it's relative. This is a good thread though....something to think about.
Megan posted this at 17:57—19th January 2007.
She has: 10,150 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Yes, true, and if you've got all the important stuff covered then it might be worth your while to focus on the little things. Especially quick changes and stuff that you can easily get into the habit of doing from the start.
Megan
My web design blog