The Right Way to Use Header Tags to Boost Your SEO

While it is tempting to just dive into writing your website copy, it is crucial to take some time upfront to consider what keywords and terms you want to optimize your pages for in search engines like Google and Bing. After all, if you don't include the correct header tags on your pages, you could be leaving out potential customers by not letting search engines know that you are targeting specific keywords or phrases.

Header tags (also called HTML heading tags) are an essential part of creating the content you want search engines to be able to find and index. Here is an in-depth guide on correctly utilizing header tags to ensure that your content shows up where it should in search results.

Optimize with keywords

One of the most important on-page ranking factors is your header tags — specifically, your title tag and H1 tag.

Your title tag appears in the browser tab and is also what Google displays as your title in the search results. Your H1 tag is the headline on your page.

Both of these tags should be optimized with keywords that accurately describe the content on that page. If you have a page about blue widgets, then you want to make sure those words appear in both your title tag and H1 tag. Including keywords in these tags will help improve your click-through rate from the search results and boost your page rankings.

Reinforce search intent

People use search engines intending to find something specific. Whether they want to learn more about a topic, find a product to buy, or read the latest news, their goal is always the same: to satisfy their need for information.

When optimizing your site for SEO, it is vital to ensure that you provide what people are looking for. By using header tags on every page, you can reinforce your visitor's intent and provide them with the content they were looking for!

Optimize page structure

Header tags are a crucial part of on-page optimization and can help your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). The right way to use header tags is to structure your content so that it is easy for users and search engines to read and understand. Here are some tips on how to do this:

• Every page should have an H1 tag, which will be the title of the page, as well as an H2 tag that will be used for subheadings. Any additional text should be below these headings and organized into H3 tags if necessary.
• Page navigation links should also be labeled with their corresponding Hx tags.
• The titles of any images or videos should also match up with the appropriate heading tag they are under, but they don't need to contain any more text than what is included in the alt text or file name.
• A strong focus on keyword relevance within headers will result in increased relevance in SERPs since keywords are weighted differently within header tags than in other parts of the document.

Hire a Professional!

You want to make sure your website is the best it can be, so you hire a professional Long Island SEO expert. But how do you know if they are really an expert? Here are a few things to look for:

• Check their credentials. A good SEO pro will have plenty of experience and results to show you.
• See how they communicate with you. A true expert will take the time to explain things in plain language without jargon.
• Ask about their process. A good SEO consultant will be able to walk you through their process step by step.
• Get a sense of their attitude. The best SEOs are passionate about their work and always looking for ways to improve results.

Conclusion

Header tags help you establish the hierarchy of your content and allow you to improve your SEO. However, if used incorrectly, these same header tags can actually have the opposite effect and hurt your SEO by allowing Google to assume that your page has too much duplicate content. To avoid this problem, follow these best practices and hire a professional New York City SEO agency to boost your SEO.

SEO Long Island is a division of Cybernet LLC based in Long Beach, Long Island. We recognize the importance of good SEO to local and national businesses.