Are You Forgetting This Important Element of SEO?

Want to know the one element of SEO that people always forget about?!

(I’m assuming yes, considering you’ve clicked on, and are reading, this blog post.)

Today, Professor Joelle (hint: that’s me) is in the building, and she’s skipping ahead in the syllabus to the next lesson of SEO 101: the forgotten part of SEO that really matters when writing your website’s copy.

H1 headlines. The thing that sounds like total jargon but is actually the easiest SEO thing in the world.

But when it comes to H1 tags and SEO, there’s more to consider than adding your target keyword and calling it a day. 

What are H1 Headlines?

Everyone knows about keywords, and you may even have some knowledge about alt text or image search… but did you know the H1 headline is more than just a pretty face?!

H1 tags and SEO go hand in hand when it comes to helping search engines understand your content. 

First things first: what even IS an H1 headline? I’m going to borrow Moz’s words for this one: “an HTML element that defines a webpage’s primary topic.”

(English, please?)

HTML is the fancy acronym for Hypertext Markup Language, and this is what most sites use to create web pages.

TAG is the lil piece of code that tells your web browser how the content should be displayed.

HEADING is exactly what you think it is: the headlines on your site. These vary in importance, from H1 (the most important) to H6 (the least important).. 

They work based on a hierarchy. An H1 headline is the topic of the page. Then, you’ll have H2 subheadings under the H1. The H3s go under the H2s, and so on.

By adding the right headlines, you’re helping search engines and readers understand the flow of the page.

See the example below:

See? It’s actually very simple. Your headline is the most important text on your page, and all you have to do is click a button to indicate your H1.

How H1 Headlines Are Designed

Most people assume that the biggest text on the page is the H1 headline. 

Makes sense, right? It stands out and is at the top of the page, so it must be the most important.

And yes, that’s usually the case. But it actually depends on your website.

If your website is on Squarespace, your heading designs are set up in settings. So when you select an H1, Squarespace automatically applies the design you’ve assigned to your H1 styling. 

This means your H1 will typically look like your largest or most prominent headline. This is useful for people who want consistency across their website.

Showit, my preferred website builder, gives you more design flexibility. You can assign an H1 tag to text for SEO and accessibility purposes without being locked into a specific style. 

That means your H1 doesn’t necessarily have to be the biggest text on the page. You could have a smaller H1 that tells search engines what the page is about, while using a larger, visually prominent piece of text as the headline that you want visitors to notice. 

Take a look at my Shop headlines, for example:

The H1 is actually the little eyebrow header because it’s more SEO-friendly, but I wanted my Shop to be called “The BTL Library”. 

Instead of sacrificing my voice for something too SEO-y, I added a separate headline to explain what this page is about and set it as my H1.

The point of the story? Your SEO H1 headline can be different from the headline you write to connect with your audience. Bonus points if you can accomplish both in the same headline.

Why are H1 Headlines Important for SEO?

Your H1 tags and SEO strategy should work together to make your content clear for both readers and search engines. Here’s why it’s important:

Easy to Navigate

If you remember what we’ve learned in our past SEO 101 lessons, user experience is KINGGG, and Miss Google loves an easy-to-navigate site as much as she loves changing her algorithm every 6 months. 

Put the H1 headline above the fold so search engines AND readers can understand the point before scrolling.

Accessibility

Headlines help accessibility. Screen reading technology “can use H1s to help users navigate your content, both in display and in the ability to search” (Moz, 2020). 

I had Chloe Arielle, an accessibility-focused website designer, on my podcast, and she shared that over 16.67% of your audience may be unable to use your site. Add headlines to make your site more accessible to people!

Processing Data

Miss Google may use your headlines instead of your title tag/SEO title to process your data. This is helpful when Google (and other search engines, sorry — always seem to forget about those lil guys!) cannot find or process your title tag. 

To learn more about title tags, click here for Moz’s definition, or here for my post about meta descriptions and title tags.

Higher Search Rankings

Proper heading use is correlated to higher search engine rankings. The lovely people over at Moz (one of my favorite free SEO resources) say that “nearly every SEO correlation study [they’ve] ever seen has shown a small but positive correlation between higher rankings and the use of headings on a page.” This bad boy needs to stand out. Make it as noticeable and as relevant to the context of your page as possible.

How many H1s should I have?

SEO experts recommend that you only add one H1 headline on your page, so as not to confuse search engines. 

And while multiple headlines on a page won’t necessarily knock Miss Google off track, it’s better to err on the side of caution and only use one. 

That being said — you are more than welcome to, and in fact encouraged to, use multiple headlines on your page to improve the readability of your posts (i.e., H2s, H3s, etc.). 

However, make sure they are in hierarchical order. An H2 should come before an H3.

Here’s an example of the H1 and H2 headlines on my old Home page.

My H1 headline is a clear, concise, SEO-rich sentence that gives my reader context about who I am and what I do. After reading this headline, they now know that I’m a creative launch copywriter, and so does Miss Google because I threw that keyword in there.

My H2 headline offers a bit more context about who I help and what I help them with. After reading this headline, my readers now know that I am focused on helping creative entrepreneurs grow their traffic, that I’m committed to helping them drive their sales, and that I write with a storytelling tone.

As they read on, they’ll encounter more text that provides them with an even better understanding of me, my business, my ideal client, and my services, but now we’re getting into a blog post on a whooole other topic (which, if you’re in need of Home page copywriting tips, you can read right here).

How to Write the Perfect Headline

Alrighty, back to H1 tags and SEO. Now that you know the importance of including headlines on each of your website’s pages, I have some homework for you. 

Scroll over to your website, choose one of your web pages, and check out your H1 (or the largest title on your page).

1. Does it include a strong, relevant keyword? This will provide context for both your readers and search engines.
2. Is it between 20-70 characters? This is the recommended length for a headline.
3. Does it give the reader a sense of what they’re about to read? You only have a matter of seconds to capture the attention of your reader once they’ve landed on your page. Make sure your headline tells them exactly what they’re getting into so they can decide whether your site is worth it.
4. Is it big enough to stand out?! Your most important headline (in the eyes of search engines and your readers, at least) should always be the largest, most prominent headline when it comes to title size. Every other headline (or subheading) must be smaller than the initial one.

If you answered “yes” to the above Qs, then you get an A+ and a cookie.

If you answered “umm…” to the above Qs, you also get a cookie, but you only get to eat it once you’ve adjusted your H1 headlines to be more SEO-friendly.

Extra cookies for anyone who reads the rest of my SEO series to learn more – I gotchu with the how-to’s, the WTFs, and the “oh, thaaat’s what that means!” answers. 

And if you’re looking to deep-dive into SEO from a true SEO expert, take the workshop I co-hosted with my friend Mariah Magazine. You’ll learn how to find and select the best keywords for your site, where to put your keywords on your site, and write keyword-rich copy without sounding like a robot.