Mulitple H1 tag issue

Hey there! Multiple H1s is not an issue, the HTML5 specs allows (actually suggests) multiple H1 tags on a page.

Ok cool. Just saw it as a red flag after Bing WMT identified it as a critical seo error. Thanks for your response.

As I research this more I am thinking that the reason behind html5 allowing more than one H1 tag is so you can divide your page into sections and emphasize additional import keywords. Expound makes menu items H1 along with a few other items. This can confuse search engines like google and bing by not making it clear what the focus of the page is. Is there a way I can edit this?

Have you seen this?

It’s really not an issue.

You’d have to recode pieces of the theme to change those – unless you are quite familiar with WP/HTML and CSS, that won’t be simple.

Ok, I just watched Mr. Google and he pretty much explained why the Expound theme should be changed to where it doesn’t have so many H1s. Like Matt said if the page is in a couple of sections then its cool if there are a couple of H1s accordingly. However, when I’m trying to rank on a search engine and the search engine is seeing multiple H1s that don’t have corresponding content to back them, it takes away from the H1 that I need it to value.

I just converted my page from html to wordpress and am trying to do this right. I guess I just don’t understand why things such as menu and widget titles are even in H1. In a perfect webpage I think the page title should be in H1 and the rest should be h2, h3, and h4 where necessary. This would give engines an understandable flow of importance regarding the content. Does this make sense?

Here is a copy n paste from a page i found.

Things you should not be doing with heading tags:
Do not stuff your heading tags with keywords.

Do not use more than one h1 tag on a page unless really necessary. Usually pages will have a single h1 heading and including two might make search engines think this as an attempt to include more keywords for SEO in multiple h1 tags. It is better to divide the content into two separate topics on individual pages with their own h1 tags. This makes more sense to both readers and the search engine spiders, however, using multiple h1 tags is allowed.

Do not use heading tags as hidden text. Any hidden text can result in penalties for your site, especially if the hidden part is a component that effects SEO.

Do not repeat heading tags on different pages of your site. It is a good practice to have unique heading tags throughout your site.

Do not use the same content in your page’s h1 tag as in your meta title tag.

Do not use heading tags for styling text but use them for presenting organized and structured content on pages. Use CSS stylesheets for the purpose of styling. – See more at: https://blog.woorank.com/2013/04/how-to-use-heading-tags-for-seo/#sthash.ev0JZ1pS.dpuf

You’d have to recode pieces of the theme to change those – unless you are quite familiar with WP/HTML and CSS, that won’t be simple.

May I suggest that the next theme update could take care of this problem so that the only H1s found on a page are ones from an author’s content.

I’m marking this as resolved. If you need further clarification, please refer to the HTML5 spec. If you’re having search engine ranking difficulties with Expound (which I highly doubt) I suggest you use a different theme.

I love your theme Konstantin, just confused why there are so many occurrences of the H1 tag.

Like Matt said if the page is in a couple of sections then its cool if there are a couple of H1s accordingly

I don’t think Matt said this. The headings you outlined in your original don’t show an abuse of the H1s as Matt describes. The H1s in the Expound theme represent different sections of content. Those heading levels are appropriate.

I’m just wondering why you think using multiple level 1 headings is an issue, is the argument from authority? Is it just because Bing say so?
– That’s fine, it’s good to hear it from the search engines themselves, but that can compromise the content for visually impaired people. It is useful to have heading levels repeated where necessary so that people, whom may not have sight, using screen readers can build up an accurate mental model of the page.
Are you still looking to re-engineer this theme or use another?

I am looking to stay with the expound theme but want to use the best SEO practices possible. When I search “multiple H1 tags” I consistently read that if you use more than one H1, in html5, it’s ok if the page is divided into different sections and the H1s represents the section’s focus; but my pages only have one section that focuses on one keyword.

This is from the second result of the search.
https://www.writingforseo.org/how-many-h1-tags-can-you-have-on-a-page/
The author states that it doesn’t send a clear message to search engines when you use multiple H1 tags.

I’ve also read similar information on google groups and other websites. I have also used online seo page analyzers and they also suggest limiting H1 totals.

My webpages each focus on one keyword. The only H1 tag I prefer to use is one containing the keyword the page focuses on. I prefer the H1 value not to be watered down by other H1s such as the word “Menu” or links to other sections of my website.

Isn’t my concern logical? I am pumping out a lot of new material and want to structure my pages the best I can.

Hey folks, just to be clear, I will not be changing the way Expound uses H1 tags in menus, widgets, etc. Again, you may refer to the HTML5 spec if you want further clarification.

And again, if you’re having search engine ranking problems with Expound, which I highly doubt, feel free to use another theme. Also note that Expound is distributed under the GPL, meaning you can fork it, remove all the tags you dislike and use it, and distribute it as you wish. Don’t forget to inherit the license when you do that ??

Cheers!

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