Google Says H1 Headings Are Useful but Not Critical

H1 tags on every website page have always been emphasized by webmasters since the birth of SEO. To get good rankings on Google H1 tags have never missed its place on the checklist. However, recently a Google Hangout session with John Mueller busted this myth. When a user asked if H1 tags are important on a webpage, we got an answer that took everyone by surprise. He informed that though H1 headings are useful for Google to understand the structure of each page they are not as critical.

He mentioned that a web page can have one H1 Headings tag or multiple tags; it does not affect the ranking of a website. When you hire an SEO agency in Los Angeles they flag the missing of H1 tags on your website but it should no longer bother you much. You can have one tag or two tags, they will offer a good user experience but not affect your Google ranking. Since we know that Google focuses more on offering a positive experience to its users, it will, therefore, be a good step to continue the habit of using H1 tags.

Someone also asked how many times we should use H1 tags on a page that may benefit the website owners. John replied that it can be used as many times as you want. There is no limit. The count of H1 tags does not have any impact on the algorithm. Since H1 tags are not an element for ranking websites, its usage will not benefit or harm you.

Why should we still use H1 tags?

After John Mueller, made this big statement he also gave us valid reasons to keep using H1 tags. The basic use of H1 tags is to structure the content on the webpage. It gives users a clean and neat looking website. Not only to the users, but these tags help search engines also to read through the page and understand different sections clearly. Hence using it properly makes it equally useful. Since the launch of HTML5, having more than one H1 tag on a single webpage has become common. Earlier developers used to use H1 tags to direct search results in their favor irrespective of the content relevancy. Google algorithms have now understood this and are smarter. This is why H1 tags are no longer a ranking factor but just a means of offering quality content to users.