What are "H tags" and why should you care?

By: Chris Bachman | April 1, 2016

You may or may not know what the term H1, H2 or even H3 mean and you may or may not have the ability to change them depending on how your website is created but...in both cases you should.

H tags, which look like: <h1>your heading text here</h2>, appear in the code adjacent to text which is usually being used as a heading or sub heading and help the search-bots identify what pieces of your content carry what level of importance. This helps the search engine better understand what your page is about and how it should rank.

Think of a newspaper or magazine article with its main heading (that's an H1) and then the next important heading or two(those would be H2's) and maybe even a third level of importance, a minor heading at best (that would be an H3). By properly organizing your keywords in a hierarchy of importance and then creating Headings (H1), sub-headings (H2) and perhaps a supporting sub-heading(an H3) you can really inform the search engines of your page intent.

Some website builder programs automatically tie the H tags to the style they think you should use while others allow you to assign an H tag to any piece of copy you like. Knowing how to utilize your H tags is very important to properly crafting a website page. Take the time to figure it out.

Tip: On any given page try to limit yourself to 1 H1 tag, 2 H2 tags and 3 H3 tags, just a good rule of thumb.

Chris Bachman is a business consultant and Project Director at ProClassWebDesign.com as well as a self confessed serial entrepreneur. He is a regular writer on topics pertaining to marketing, SEO, and business websites as well as an instructor and independent consultant. Learn more about Chris Bachman on Google+ or LinkedIn.