The one question that has been bugging On-Page Optimization specialists is whether Multiple H1 tags on a page can cause a bad reputation on Google.
The reason for the worries of webmasters is due to some tools, for example, Screaming Frog, showing multiple H1 tags as a serious on-page issue.
Putting an end to the worries of the webmasters, Google’s John Mueller has confirmed that the Search Engine Algorithm of Google doesn’t have any issues with a page having multiple H1 tags. He also added that Multiple H1 tags, if the users find benefit from having it on a page, is perfectly fine.
Speaking to the webmasters in his #AskGoogleWebmasters YouTube session Mueller clarified that “Our systems don’t have a problem when it comes to multiple H1 headings on a page.”
He also added that H1 tag and other heading attributes provide the Google Algorithms signals about the context and that using semantically structured headings does help Google pages better.
Mueller stressed that if having multiple H1 tags makes sense for the end users, webmasters can use it without the fear of Google disapproving it.
“Our systems aren’t too picky and we’ll try to work with the HTML as we find it, be it one H1 heading, multiple H1 headings or just styled pieces of text without semantic HTML at all,” said Mueller.
Full Transcript of What John Mueller said about Having Multiple H1 Tags
Question: Can we have a clear answer to the question how to handle headings and accessibility? I see a lot of multiple H1 (all but one are usually hidden) out there on the web. Everybody treats it differently. And stuff like the main tag?
John Mueller: So, this is a pretty common question and it’s pretty straightforward. Our systems don’t have a problem when it comes to multiple h1 headings on a page. That’s a fairly common pattern on the web. We use headings to better understand the context of different parts of a page.
Having clear semantically understandable headings is useful in understanding any given page however, we have to work with the web as we find it and a lot of it isn’t semantically structured at all for users.
The difference is minimal both kinds of pages can be extremely relevant to a question that they have. In turn our systems aren’t too picky and we’ll try to work with the HTML as we find it be it one h1 heading multiple h1 headings or just styled pieces of text without semantic HTML at all.
In short when thinking about this topic SEO shouldn’t be your primary objective instead think about your users. If you have ways of making your content accessible to them be it by using multiple H1 headings or other standard HTML constructs, then that’s not going to get in the way of your SEO efforts.
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