Yoast H1 bug

Hello @thomastolkien

We’d like to help you get the issue sorted out. Can you confirm you are using the latest version of WordPress 5.4.1 and Yoast SEO for WordPress 14.1? Are you using the default WordPress classic or block editor or are you using a page builder or custom content box to insert your content?

Also, could you please provide us with the details of the specific error message you are getting? Also, if you could provide us with a sample URL of your site so we can check on the headings output.

Yes, Yes, Divi theme for content.

Specific error message:

Single title: H1s should only be used as your main title. Find all H1s in your text that aren’t your main title and change them to a lower heading level!

html output (privacy redacted) https://snipboard.io/xG9yM2.jpg Note there is only 1 <h1> appearing on string search.

If you want to replicate the issue:
1) Fresh WordPress Install with DIVI theme.
2) Up to date Yoast plugin.
3) Create a page and upload a Divi Layout json (we used the “landing page” from this one: https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/divi-resources/get-a-free-life-coach-layout-pack-for-divi
4) Ensure there’s just 1 <h1> on the page. We made the first title “I’m Carly..” the only <h1> . Save & publish page.
5) Yoast will flag the warning as described above, even though there’s only 1 <h1> on the page.

Hi,

Yoast SEO expects the H1 tag to be the first part of the page. With Divi active on pages, Divi disables the page title and thus Yoast SEO expects the first item in the Divi content to contain the H1 tag. When the first item does not contain the H1 tag, Yoast SEO falls back to the default WordPress page title for the H1 title check.

Therefore when the next Divi item contains an H1 tag, Yoast SEO will see two H1 tags even though the content shows one. Please ensure that the first Divi module contains the H1 tag to resolve the warning. Alternatively, you can ignore the warning if you know the content only has one H1 tag.

Delighted that Yoast has now recognized and identified the issue and problem. This is useful for temporary workarounds.

However, clearly you cannot expect web designers to redesign their sites to confirm with a plugin that doesn’t quite work as expected – especially with the rapid growth in sites created using page builders.

So, can you let us know when we can expect a permanent fix and resolution?

Hi @thomastolkien,

We do agree that this is something that should be addressed and therefore was added to our?backlog.?This means that it is on our radar: we have been able to confirm the bug and therefore have the intention of fixing this. Unfortunately, due to capacity, we cannot give you an estimate on when this issue will be addressed.

Please note though that this is not an issue that will cause any problems with your content optimization, just a bug in the way the plugin is analyzing the content created by your page builder.

We understand that sometimes, it’s tempting to attempt to get all green lights on the SEO analysis. However, these are general guidelines, not strict rules that will hurt your ranking. If you feel your page is properly formatted and has a good user experience, then these warnings can be safely ignored and you should not sacrifice user experience to get the green bullet. You can read more about this on this article on our website: https://yoast.com/want-green-bullet-wp-seo/

“it’s tempting to attempt to get all green lights on the SEO analysis. However, these are general guidelines, not strict rules that will hurt your ranking.”

I agree with that.

“that this is not an issue that will cause any problems with your content optimization”

I don’t agree with that.

The issue is, that your plugin, under certain circumstances, will green-light a post or page made using a page building that has no H1 tags in it.

This is down to a user experience (UX) problem. To replicate, with the example given above, the user sees the H1 warning and changes the H1 title to an H2. Because the user has changed an H1 (for example the H1 in the example given) to an H2 in order to make the Yoast warning go away, this results in a green-lighted page, with no warnings.

In fact the page now has no H1 at all. That’s not great for SEO.

This is a situation we’ve seen recently in two client sites, where every page started with an H2 (changed from an H1 by the client) due to the misconception caused by Yoast’s green-light system.

A temporary improvement, before a permanent fix, would be to change the wording on the Yoast H1 warning to make the situation clearer, and prevent the perception that the H1 should be changed.

@thomastolkien We do understand your concern that this could result in an inaccurate optimization of a page and please know that there is currently an issue report open with our developers.

Unfortunately we are unable to provide an ETA as to exactly when this will be resolved. Currently the issue is in a queue and we can’t say how much time will be required before our developers can address the issue.

closeThis thread has been marked as resolved due to a lack of activity. You’re always welcome to re-open this topic.

Thanks for understanding!

Reopen – this issue has not been resolved.