The H1 tag is an HTML heading that’s most commonly used to mark up a web page title. Most websites use CSS to make the H1 stand out on the page compared to lesser headings like H2, H3, etc. 

H1 tags helps search engines understand the page

Google’s John Mueller said that H1 tags help Google to understand the structure of a page. So if you’re using H1s as Google recommends for your page title or content heading, your H1 is effectively telling Google “here’s what my page is about.”

H1 tags improve user experience in the sense that they’re part of a web page’s hierarchical structure. The H1 is the most prominent heading on the page, then H2, then H3, etc.

Fail to use H1 tags and other headings properly and pages become harder to skim and digest.

H1 tags improve accessibility

Millions of visually-impaired people use screen readers to convert web page copy and images to audio. According to this study by webAIM, 60% of screen reader users prefer that only the page title be an H1 tag.

H1 tag SEO best practices

Before we run through the best practices, it’s important to note that breaking any of these is extremely unlikely to wreak SEO havoc on your website. So don’t panic if you’re not doing some of these things. It certainly won’t lead to anything scary like a Google penalty.

Google’s job is to understand, index, and rank the web’s content. It’s impossible to do this without mechanisms to deal with nonideal circumstances like pages without H1 tags.

That said, every little bit helps in SEO—so it’s useful to follow best practices where possible.

Here are 9 best practices for H1 tags:

1. Use H1 tags for page titles
2. Use title case for H1s
3. Match H1s to title tags
4. Use an H1 tag on every important page
5. Use only one H1 per page
6. Keep H1 tags short
7. Style headings for hierarchy
8. Include your target keyword
9. Make H1 tags compelling

Use H1 tags for page titles

Google says to “place the title of your article in a prominent spot above the article body, such as in a <h1> tag.”

While many website platforms and CMS’ do this by default, this can be overridden for certain themes.

If you’re curious how your theme handles this, the easiest way to check is to right-click on the title in your browser and select “Inspect.” If the highlighted part includes <h1>, then it’s wrapped in a H1 tag