Why Google required H1 for on-page SEO?

[hoangvu]

Hello Guys,

More people are saying that H1 tag is important for on page SEO but why? why Google required H1 on your site? and what about H2, H3, H4? Do I need to include keywords in H1 on a webpage whether the high competition or low competition keyword?

Thank you in advance.

 

[bijutoha]

I think when you'll find out the importance of H1 tag then it will solve your ambiguous about it.. Actually, I want to show you a path, Hope it'll help you a lot [URLnf="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/in-2014-how-important-is-an-h1-tag-for-seo/"]here[/URLnf]

 

[hoangvu]

I think when you'll find out the importance of H1 tag then it will solve your ambiguous about it.. Actually, I want to show you a path, Hope it'll help you a lot [URLnf="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/in-2014-how-important-is-an-h1-tag-for-seo/"]here[/URLnf]

I've just read the article from your link but it didn't provide me answers I need.

The H1 tag has long been an example of an influential ranking factor and important signal to search engines as to what a page of content is about. The proportion of the H1’s influence on rankings compared to the overall picture has diminished over time, but is still considered an important ranking factor to many of the top minds in the SEO industry.

In their article, they considered H1 as an important ranking factor but I don't think so. Anyone confirms me?

Are any sites getting first page of Google without using H1 or heading tags?

 

[RajeshThummar]

As per instruction of Matt Cutt's in one video, he said "On a category page that H1 would be the category name and on a product page the product name. It’s not that hard, indeed. That is why we still recommend using the H1 this way."

 

[PTTed]

You don't have to use H1, H2, H3 or H anything if you don't want to.

It doesn't really matter whether you are using CSS or not. What matters is the font size and the location of the header on the page. Google's on-page portion of their algorithm looks for larger font sizes on a page and the location of them and gives more weight to those words from an on-page standpoint. So if you put something in a large font at the top of your page, it works the same way as using an H1 on most sites using CSS. The H1 is just a shortcut for specifying and standardizing things like (font size, color, alignment, etc.) for headings across a website.

Remember, Google came into existence before everyone was using Cascading Style Sheets. When Google first came out, everyone I know of was coding their pages manually and specifying things like font sizes and font colors right in the HTML code on the page. Google could determine headings back then and they still can regardless of whether you use that H1 or not. (as long as you make it obvious for them)

To answer your question: Yes you should use headings on a page and that heading should include whatever keyword you are trying to rank for in most cases. That will make your page more relevant for that keyword. And relevancy is the most important ranking factor by far.