How to Optimize Your Content through H Tags

H Tag SEO

Great content comes from a high degree of quality and uniqueness. A distinctive content in an engaging tone certainly keeps the reader intact. But what if you have integrated all possible tactics of making your content reader-friendly, but are struggling with its optimization? Maybe you’re overlooking the key aspects of SEO involving Heading tags, i.e., H1, H2, and H3 tags, and so on.

What is the use of all the quality you’ve incorporated in your content if it’s not visible on the SERPs? That’s the reason you need to up your On Page SEO game through H tags (and meta tags). Stay adhered to the article as we provide some key insights into the importance and proper implementation of H tags in your writing:

What are H Tags?

H tags refer to the different heading tags used within the webpage to enhance the visibility of the key points of your content. They typically involve a Header tag, H1 tag, H2 tag, H3 tag, and so on. Let’s dissect each one of them separately.

·        Header Tag

A header tag, as appears from its name, is the heading of the webpage that the search engine displays on its SERP. It isn’t necessarily the actual “title” of the page. That is why the heading appearing on SERP is usually termed as “meta title” and is focused on calling search engines’ attention to it.

Not just they’re efficient to display for search engines, meta titles provide convenience to the readers as well. Evidently, the header tag is kept short, concise, and engaging.

·        H1 Tag

H1 tag remains the most significant of all H tags in SEO. Primarily used in the title or main heading, it appeals directly to the reader’s intent and tells what exactly is the article or webpage about. Additionally, the search engine’s algorithm also uses the page title to identify the relevancy of the article with the intended search.

H1 tag is essentially stuffed with the primary focus keyword for better ranking on SERP. Thus, the H1 tag or page title remains the most important factor in content optimization.

·        H2 Tag

H2 tag refers to the secondary heading tag used within the content, typically in the subheadings. The subheadings are simply a logical break down of the main idea of the content to enhance readability. The more you incorporate the subheadings, the more it becomes convenient for the readers to target their preferred part of the entire content.

·        H3, H4, H5 Tags and So on…

You can further enhance the degree of the article’s reader-friendliness by dividing it into even more sections and subsections. Use the H3, H4, H5, and H6 tags hierarchically. Such a subdivision provides more clarity to the readers as it removes those chunky paragraphs which seem difficult to read and understand.

A clear, cluttered, and organized content entices them to stay on the article and keep returning to your website or blog for further reading. The increased traffic of the readers in turn leads towards better ranking and optimization of the content.

Later in this article, we’ve provided an example of how to implement H1, H2, H3, and H4 tags properly in your content.

Doing SEO with H Tag – How to Make it Work?

Although the H tag in your content is more about keeping the readers intact, it indirectly improves SEO. Search engines prioritize reader-friendliness and quality of the content when ranking a webpage on their SERPs. As it is established, breaking your cluttered paragraphs down into series of sections and subsections is an ideal way to keep your content clean, organized, engaging, and readable. Here’s how to add H1 (and beyond) tags within your webpage:

1. Adding Header Tags

  • Header tags are purely just to optimize your content and directly focusing on users’ needs.
  • Keep your header short and precise; below 40 characters.
  • Be sure to add your primary keyword in the header tag.
  • If your H1 tag/page title is readily short, concise, and to-the-point, meta title or header remains optional. You may skip it and use the H1 tag as your meta title.

2. Adding H1 Tags

  • H1 tags are the most crucial part of your content and must be used as a title.
  • In addition to crafting decent and catchy wordings, the integration of highly researched focused keywords within the title is equally important.
  • Short titles appeal the most to the readers. Be sure to keep the page title/H1 tag below 75 characters. Keep it brief and simple but concise.
  • As much as we emphasize the natural insertion of your primary keyword in the title, we suggest avoiding secondary (or less significant) keywords in the H1 tag.
  • Search engines have updated their bots for good and have turned more writer-friendly ever since. Gone are the days when the use of H1 was limited to the page title. You can now use as many H1 tags as you want within your content. However, one H1 tag per MS Word page length seems ideal.
  • Keep in mind the search intent of your target audience or else you might find your page lagging behind a plethora of others on SERPs. You may pick out the keywords from the “related searches” search engine (like Google) itself suggests.

3. Adding H2, H3, H4, and Beyond Tags

  • If the H1 tag introduces the readers to what exactly is your webpage about, the H2 title dissects the content into sections.
  • H3, H4, and further tags make it way more convenient for them to navigate through the page.
  • Although it depends on the topic you’re writing on, but if your content is brief (around 300) words, the H1, H2, and H3 tags would cover it efficiently.
  • You can interlink your website’s pages using your H tags as the text for more power or emphasis.
  • Use the H tags hierarchically; starting from H1 tag for the title, H2 tag for headings, H3 for subheadings, and H4, H5, and H6 for further subsections.

4. Content Outline (Tutorial)

Here’s a comprehensive tutorial to incorporating H tags in an article on “Overcoming Social Anxiety” 

Header Tag: Understanding and Overcoming Social Anxiety (Meta title to display on SERP; 39 characters)

  • H1: Social Anxiety – Diving Deep into Tackling Social Phobia (Introductory Title)
    • H2: Misconceptions about Social Anxiety
      • H3: Social Anxiety is not that common
      • H3: Shyness and Social Anxiety are the same
      • H3: Social Anxiety is merely a fear
      • H3: People learn to live with Social Anxiety
    • H2: Overcoming Social Anxiety
      • H3: Identify Negativity
        • H4: Identify
        • H4: Analyze
      • H3: Stop Unnecessary Assumptions
      • H3: Increase Your External Focus
      • H3: Playout Worst Case Scenario
        • H4: Work presentations
        • H4: Speaking in crowds
      • H3: Push yourself to limits
      • H3: Adopt Healthy Lifestyle
        • H4: Physical Health
          • H5: Limit caffeine
          • H5: Healthy Diet
          • H5: Quit Smoking
        • H4: Mental Health
          • H5: Relieving exercises
          • H5: Meditation
          • H5: Seek medical assistance in case of a disorder
        • H2: Key Takeaways
        • H2: Conclusion

See Also: HTTP Status Codes and Canonical Tag SEO

Concluding Remarks

H tags may not have a direct impact on SEO boosting like, for example, a domain name can, yet they play a significant role in ranking your content on search engine page results. Be sure to integrate keywords within the headings in an order depending on their number of searches.

Keep the H tags well-articulated, precise, and in a hierarchy. At the end of the day, it’s all about providing maximum convenience to your readers and in turn, accomplishing the SEO via H tags.