html Heading Tags Rules for Success
Hello everyone. Hope all is well. Today, I want to address issues with html heading tags. A <h></h> tag is html code that displays a heading title in default set font sizes to emphasize and title areas of your webpage and they should always be arranged in chronological order h1 being the largest font and first in your webpage, then h2, h3, h4, h5, through h6 being the smallest. Like word documents or others a header tag serves the same purpose in a webpage; However, in a webpage there are some added rules and purpose. [ Sorta like a bear snatching a salmon... Sorta. ]
The validation systems usually will validate your html code if your h tags are not in chronological order, or if you have multiple of this or that particular h tag, but I am going to emphasize, "it is not a good practice to develop." When performing search engine optimization, "SEO", the rules for header tags are strict and a deviation from the layout I present in this post will hinder your SEO score. Use caution here, because I have seen this web study say, "this many of these h tags", and "that many of those h tags" and another company, SEO program, or study say something different. I've spent a lot of time on research and testing here and there on lots of websites over the years and I've seen a difference with the following guidelines.
There is only "one" <h1> tag. This tag is what search engines look for, just as importantly as the title and meta description, so if you are selling "monkey buggies" your <h1> tag better have monkey buggies roll fast or something similar in the <h1> tag. The <h1> tag should have at least 20 character. (Spacing counted also) Do not exceed 60 total characters, but 36 characters is ideal. All <h> tags have a preset size. To change the sizes of header tags there are more rules to follow to make this a successful and acceptable operation. When setting font sizes for <h> tags in css, validation maybe successful, but for purposes of SEO you must "make the font size steps semetrical". What this means, is if your <h1> tag gets set to font-size: 50, then there must be an even step down through all of your <h> tags. Your <h2> tags may be 42, <h3> tags would be 34, <h4> tags 26, <h5> 18, and this would place <h6> tag at 10. Basically, this is an 8 digit decline in the downstep from <h1> through <h6>. Your font-size setup doesn't have to be this particular scenario, this is an example, but the downstep does have to be an even diminishment.
<h2> tags should be limited to only two. No more than 80 character. The reason for only having two is because chronological order means "diminishment with no skipping", so placing a <h2> tag and then a <h3> tag and then another following <h2>, is not acceptable. There is an acceptable format to have more than two <h2> tags. This can be done if there are only <h2> tags then you use <p> tags to write articles, etc. Then another <h2>, etc.. No other size <h> tags in between. When the <h2> tags are finished, then you must start listing <h3> tags. If this is the case, then you can insert up to 4 <h2> tags.
<h3> tags can be up to 8. No more than 60 character. <h4> tags can be up to 8. No more than 60 character. <h5> tags can be up to 4. No more than 30 character. Only one <h6> tag. No more than 60 character. If you need more of any of these h tags, you must use <p> tags to add your text. If you need to change the sizes, you will have to write the style into the css file. There is no deviation from the amounts listed above, or your SEO score will suffer.
There are a lot more aspects to govern html header tags, but I have had to cut it short for this post; However, I was able to cram in vital information that will make your html header tags not only valid, but will make SEO stand up and salute!
Until next time...
