Google’s Gary Illyes has recently clarified how to use heading elements like H1, H2, and so on for SEO. This news is shaking up the digital marketing world!
Understanding Heading Elements
Heading elements (H1 to H6) are like the headlines and subheadings in a book. They help organise content on a web page and make it easier for readers and search engines to understand what the page is about.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) says, “HTML defines six levels of headings. A heading element implies all the font changes, paragraph breaks before and after, and any white space necessary to render the heading. The heading elements are H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6 with H1 being the highest (or most important) level and H6 the least.”
What Google Says About Using Headings
A question was asked to Gary Illyes about the importance of using headings in the right order for SEO. The SEO Starter Guide says it’s good to order headings correctly for screen readers but not crucial for Google. This raised some confusion since some SEO tools recommend always using a strict order.
Gary responded, “We update our documentation quite frequently to ensure that it’s always up to date. In fact, the SEO starter guide was refreshed just a couple of months back to ensure it’s still relevant, so what you read in the guide is as accurate as it can get. Also, just because a non-Google tool tells you something is good or bad, that doesn’t make it relevant for Google; it may still be a good idea, just not necessarily relevant to Google.”
Do You Need to Worry About Headings?
Official HTML rules suggest using headings in order, but they are not strict about it. They say, “A heading element briefly describes the topic of the section it introduces. Heading information may be used by user agents, for example, to construct a table of contents for a document automatically.”
Even though it’s encouraged to order headings, it’s not a strict rule. It’s more important for accessibility reasons, like helping screen readers, than for SEO.
What This Means for You
Gary’s advice is clear: don’t stress too much about perfect heading order for SEO. Focus on making your content clear and well-structured. Google’s algorithms are smart enough to understand your content even if your headings aren’t perfectly in order.