frobn
07-15-2005, 10:16 AM
From another thread
...
lately there have been developments regarding the decreasing importance of H1s and the increasing importance of h2 tags.
But my standpoint is to use them all sensibly. I don't like having to constantly change a site according to the very latest.
If you use all of them in a way that it "makes common sense", you will do well overall without having to alter the look and appeal of your site.
and
At this time many seos are following the Google Blog religiously to see what tags they are using.
They have just changed to <h3> ... first it was h1 and then h2.
If Google is straying from the intent of heading tags then they are undermining the movement towards a 'semantic meaningful' web. Please note I am responding to statements from a previous thread and I have no knowledge that Google is actively undermining anything. From my observations I believe Google gives heading tags a low priority or ignors them completely.
______________________________________________
Sometime ago I wrote an article "Writing For The Web Using A Heirarcal Approach." I rewrote it as if I were writing this as a web page and showing the xhtml markup. It is not complete but I hope will be helpful.
<html>
<head>
<title>Writing for the Web using heading and stylel tags</title>
<!-- A broad general statement of the page content -->
<meta name="Writing for a sematically meaningful web using HTML heading tags for focus and style tags for emphasis" />
<!--a brief summary of the page content -->
</head>
<body>
<h1>Writing for the Web using HTML heading tags and style tags</h1>
<p>Writing web pages is different from writing for print</p>
<ol>
<li>79% of users scan the page instead of reading word-for-word</li>
<li>Reading from computer screens is 25% slower than from paper</li>
<li>Web content should have 50% of the word count of its paper equivalent</li>
</ol>
<p>This suggests to an experienced writer that web content should be presented in a hierarcal manner similar to an outline. I believe that w3c.org had this in mind when developing css and xhtml standards for a <strong>semantically meaningful web</strong>.</p>
<h2>Use of Heading tags h1, h2, h3 and semantically meaningful pages</h2>
<p>Heading tags direct the user to the theme and main points contained in the page content and helps the reader to scan content quickly and focus on what is important to him or her.</p>
<h3>General uses of h1 tag</h3>
<p>The higher the tag number the broader or more general the heading so an h1 tag, similar to page title, sets the page theme. A page should have only one theme.</p>
<h3>General uses of h2 tag</h3>
<p>h2 tags contain sub themes. None, one or two per page at most</p>
<h3>General uses of h3 tag</h3>
<p>Use h3 tags to separate aspects of the theme or sub-theme</p>
<h3>Use of style tags</h3>
<p>Style tags: strong, em and color are used to emphasise points in a paragraph.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>All search engines advise writing for the user and not for the search engine. The proper use of heading and style tags can assist in determining relevance of the content. When title, description, heading tags contain what they purport and the content between the tags is congruent then relevance is high.</p>
</body>
</html>
...
lately there have been developments regarding the decreasing importance of H1s and the increasing importance of h2 tags.
But my standpoint is to use them all sensibly. I don't like having to constantly change a site according to the very latest.
If you use all of them in a way that it "makes common sense", you will do well overall without having to alter the look and appeal of your site.
and
At this time many seos are following the Google Blog religiously to see what tags they are using.
They have just changed to <h3> ... first it was h1 and then h2.
If Google is straying from the intent of heading tags then they are undermining the movement towards a 'semantic meaningful' web. Please note I am responding to statements from a previous thread and I have no knowledge that Google is actively undermining anything. From my observations I believe Google gives heading tags a low priority or ignors them completely.
______________________________________________
Sometime ago I wrote an article "Writing For The Web Using A Heirarcal Approach." I rewrote it as if I were writing this as a web page and showing the xhtml markup. It is not complete but I hope will be helpful.
<html>
<head>
<title>Writing for the Web using heading and stylel tags</title>
<!-- A broad general statement of the page content -->
<meta name="Writing for a sematically meaningful web using HTML heading tags for focus and style tags for emphasis" />
<!--a brief summary of the page content -->
</head>
<body>
<h1>Writing for the Web using HTML heading tags and style tags</h1>
<p>Writing web pages is different from writing for print</p>
<ol>
<li>79% of users scan the page instead of reading word-for-word</li>
<li>Reading from computer screens is 25% slower than from paper</li>
<li>Web content should have 50% of the word count of its paper equivalent</li>
</ol>
<p>This suggests to an experienced writer that web content should be presented in a hierarcal manner similar to an outline. I believe that w3c.org had this in mind when developing css and xhtml standards for a <strong>semantically meaningful web</strong>.</p>
<h2>Use of Heading tags h1, h2, h3 and semantically meaningful pages</h2>
<p>Heading tags direct the user to the theme and main points contained in the page content and helps the reader to scan content quickly and focus on what is important to him or her.</p>
<h3>General uses of h1 tag</h3>
<p>The higher the tag number the broader or more general the heading so an h1 tag, similar to page title, sets the page theme. A page should have only one theme.</p>
<h3>General uses of h2 tag</h3>
<p>h2 tags contain sub themes. None, one or two per page at most</p>
<h3>General uses of h3 tag</h3>
<p>Use h3 tags to separate aspects of the theme or sub-theme</p>
<h3>Use of style tags</h3>
<p>Style tags: strong, em and color are used to emphasise points in a paragraph.</p>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>All search engines advise writing for the user and not for the search engine. The proper use of heading and style tags can assist in determining relevance of the content. When title, description, heading tags contain what they purport and the content between the tags is congruent then relevance is high.</p>
</body>
</html>