The H Tags

The <h> tags are considered the second most important of your search optimization attributes. H Tags provide search engines with an outline of what is important on your web page.  <h1> would be the top category, re. “Ford Dealer”, <h2> would be the next, re. “San Francisco Ford”, <h3> and so on.

Surprisingly many vendors don’t even have H tags in their pages.  Those that do, waste the SEO potential by emphasizing nonsense like <h1>hours and directions</h1>.  No one searches for hours and directions!  Yet this is common, while it should be considered criminal.

Not every dealer has the ability to customize the H Tags.  Smaller vendors will always update your H Tags, but not all small vendors use them or optimize them for you.  You are really on your own.  Large template site vendors – its a toss-up.

<h> Tag best practices are: 1) update your H tags, 2) use popular search terms, 3) do not use multiple H1 tags. Use h2 and h3 tags liberally as sub-headings to the H1, 4) use local keywords if possible, 5) don’t use non-keywords…

…I can’t emphasize that strongly enough – avoid emphasizing non-search terms like <h1>models</h1>.  It is better NOT to have H Tags that confuse search engines with non-keywords. If its not a relevant keyword, don’t put it in an H Tag.