<section>,<article>,<multiple,h1s> what af

[freeTinker]

Is there any information about what affect use of multiple <h1>s within multiple <article>s etc. might have on organic SEO? My impression was that Google et al kinda looked upon multiple <h1>s as spammy ≤XHTML1.x

Is there a danger here, or do the various Search Engines definitively have this covered?

Thx for any info

[JAB Creations]

I use a single h1 element for each page like the main header on a newpaper, you're not going to see any other text in the entire newspaper (except maybe advertisements) that are as large as the main header on the front page.

I use h2 header elements for different sections of a page with a brief summary under the h1 header element. Google seems to appreciate that. You can use multiple h2 headers though make sure that you cascade them correctly (h1 -> h2 -> h3, h2->h3->h4, h2, h2, h2->h3,h3) etc.

[freeTinker]

Good, business per usual then. Thx

[BlueBoden]

There is nothing wrong with using multiple H1s, I'm already doing it for my navigation menus, to indicate that they ain't a part of the main content section.

You can use h2-h6 elements, to create a smoother transaction to the new sectioning method, but i wouldn't recommend doing it, unless some other part of your code, expects the h2-h6 elements.

[JAB Creations]

As far as I'm concerned if I was a search engine and I saw two or three h1's I would disregard them thus the page using them would lose potential value. If I saw lots of h1 elements I'd mark the page as trying to abuse the element and mark it off as spam.

[BlueBoden]

As far as I'm concerned if I was a search engine and I saw two or three h1's I would disregard them thus the page using them would lose potential value. If I saw lots of h1 elements I'd mark the page as trying to abuse the element and mark it off as spam.

Then its good that you ain't in charge of major search engines. There is so much more going on behind the scenes, which has far greater significance in relation to SEO.

It also depends on your structure, current authority level etc. Generally sites that are well established, will also be able to get away with more. But that isn't to say they won't benefit from using headers correctly.

You surely shouldn't overdo the use of h1s, and using it multiple times is purely of semantic value. But having a few h1s, generally won't do any harm, at least not in search engines that I'm aware of.

Most sites ain't using headers correctly, and they do pretty well anyway.

Having multiple h1s is not invalid, and could even be the case when using sectioning elements, all though h2-h6 are equals. Basically the numbering of the heading elements stands to be ignored, if used together with sectioning elements.

If your main concern is around SEO, then you may be interested in this Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIn5qJKU8VM by Matt cutts

[JAB Creations]

Convince me with an example.

[BlueBoden]

Basically Matt Cutts laid it all out for you. In case you haven't noticed, he has something to do with Search at Google (Might be worth checking out).

[JAB Creations]

I watched the video, Matt's job description is not web design.

Convince me with an example.

[BlueBoden]

Without giving away any statistics of the site, http://brugbart.com/ is a site that I've worked on, which specifically uses h1 as headings for its navigational columns, having top 10 rankings on quite a few different search phrases.

Which reminds me, i need to get back to work, some insane spammer a site of mine.

[JAB Creations]

Using h1 elements for screen readers would be the only reason I could agree with using multiple h1 elements however in HTML5 I think the nav element negates their usage.

However there are legitimate reasons to use headers for screen readers if that is a concern with XHTML or HTML4 though I haven't specialized in accessibility to that level, well not yet at least.

In that context I think some sort of non-content related header element should be used and the usage of numbered headers should be reserved for use with page content only.

[BlueBoden]

It doesn't matter if its h1 or h6, only when we talk semantics.

The nav element would completely eliminate the need to have a header for your navigation, and make it much easier for screen readers as well, since they could simply allow jumping directly to the navigation, instead of having to read out all the headers. That doesn't mean you should replace headers with p elements though "a header is a header", so if you have one, use the h1 element.

Finally.. As UAs start to catch up, you will likely see more sites stop using h2-h6, because the old sectioning method is replaced with the sectioning elements, which allows a unlimited number of subsections.

Basically screen readers just read out "list of x links", including a header before your navigation lists, would allow a user to jump between headings. I don't remember whether they can jump between lists on the page as well, but in any case, the nav element will likely make things easier.

Here is some more about headings that i forgot about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR5itZlq8sk

[nuevolutionWd]

Bludeboden,
It should matter. Remember, HTML5 only creates a more appropriate structure, but you should always keep "semantics" in your dictionary. We can't always assume that a client is going to keep using us for ever to update their web sites, so we need to be fair to other designers/developers. Not long ago, I created a web site for a client that was completely in HTML5 and for some odd reason the client felt he couldn't afford me any longer. To make the story short, I received a very interesting call from the client a few months later telling me that he had to pay the new designer to rebuild the site over again because I was using tags that didn't exist [ he had never seen the header, nav, aside, section, article, footer tag in his life]. My response was... well if you would have hired someone that knows what he was doing they would have told you that your web site was coded in html5 and not XHTML... and to make the story short... well we're going to court over the other designer... yeah.... I think that for now until the rest of the world catches up to the us the people that are always pushing the web browsers to the limits... we should keep it simple...

Eventually, as time passes the search engines will probably figure out that times are changing... just like keywords are a thing of the past? soon h2-h6 will disappear from our complicated mark up language...