SEO Tip: Your Heading Tags Should Include your Keywords

Lately, it seems as though many people have been concerned about over-optimization when it comes to search engine optimization of their web sites. Rightly so. There is some concern, especially since Google has been testing the over-optimization filter yet again. Keep in mind, though, that versions of the so-called Over Optimization Penalty has been around for years and SEOs have been concerned for a long time.

That’s why I continue to post these search engine optimization tips, so we can get back to the basics here of SEO. So, let’s take a look at heading tags and remember that your heading tags should include your keywords.

The heading tags you create fore ach of your web pages should have keywords in them for effective SEO. These are the headings for the body of your web page. You should have at least three heading tags for each page. This is how you inform the search engines and visitors about what you have to offer on your various web pages.

You definitely want to put the 1st heading tag, called, H1 around the name of your product. This is so that it targets what you are selling on that particular page of your website. You want to use the keywords that are the most important so that you will be able to have those important words at the top of the web page.

You want to do this for every single web page, even those that you don’t end up being pages where you sell items. This includes your blog pages too because they will often get a great deal of traffic. You can use the H2 and H3 headings for any subsections where you can use keywords effectively as well.

If you have many web pages, you want to adequately have headings for all of them. This includes your about us page, your frequently asked questions, and your testimonials pages. By effectively using these heading tags, you will be able to give your site plenty of structure which is professional. You will also be able to get higher search engine rankings and far more traffic than before.

One of the most interesting tips that’s related here is to include headings but make sure they’re properly marked up. Use an H2, H3, H4, tag on pages whenever possible and whenever it’s appropriate. Especially on longer posts and pages. Then, use a Table of Contents plugin on your WordPress site to automatically include “jump links” to those headings. They’re actually bookmarks that are essentially hash tags added to the URL of the heading so you can literally click on a link in the TOC and “jump down” to that section of the page. Adding headings this way is going to help with internal linking–and they’ll typically show up in the search engine results listing of pages that are ranking in the search engine results pages.

Here’s an example of the “jump links” that I’m talking about, only available when you add heading and the proper heading tags on your page. If you look at this post, you’ll see the Table of Contents being used. Click a link and you’ll be brought down to a heading or section of this page. I’ve include several sample heading tags to show you what it looks like. Pretty cool, huh?