Same H1 tag in header across entire site

[TRICORSystems]

Should I have the same H1 tag in my header through out my entire site? Or is this considered to be  self canalization for my main keywords.

For example right now I have an H1 tag with my main targeted keywords on every page on my site, even if the pages content doesn't necessarily match the keywords in the H1 tag.

[inhouseninja]

Absolutely a bad idea.  You should be using that h1 tag to promote the current page only, not the same keywords over and over.

[EGOL]

For example right now I have an H1 tag with my main targeted keywords on every page on my site, even if the pages content doesn't necessarily match the keywords in the H1 tag.

Most likely, you will be able to improve the search engine traffic of most pages by making the H1 text match the topic of your PAGE.

[lightyman]

Hi Brandon,

I would only use keywords relevant to the page in the H1 tag. The reasons for this are that it is

a) not very descriptive for the end user if all the pages have the same H1 text regardless of page content (unless the text is hidden) and

b) it will have an impact on your other keyword rankings as you could make better use of the H1 tag to contain keywords which ARE relavant to the page.

The general rule of thumb is that each page should target only 1 or 2 unique, specific keywords or phrases, meaning that all of the on-page optimisation should incorporate these into the various tags and elements, such as the H1.

I don't think Google would give you a massive penalty for this but I know that you could target your keywords much more effectively by not duplicating your H1s across each page.

Hope that helps

[mjtaylor]

Just in case you don't already have enough feedback: No, don't do it! The h1 is not the most powerful onpage element .. I think the title tag gets that award -- but it can be a useful factor. It should be written for the user - think newspaper headlines!

And just as each page should have distinct content, and a distinct tile, meta description, etc, so it should have a distinct, effective, h1 tag.

[TRICORSystems]

Thank you for the responses!

The reason why I thought it may be effective is because I had seen it done on a few sites. Specifically when a CMS is used to manage the sites content. If you place a h1 tag into your header file it's going to care through every page of the site.

I will definitly be changing that strategy ASAP!

Thanks for the help.