Why should your title and H1 tag be different?

[randfish]

Wow - surprisingly good topic for such a relatively basic part of SEO!

So... I think Todd Malicoat and I still disagree. He likes to have a different title + H1 and claims they're good for rankings and keyword diversity. I largely disagree based on user experience and the relative unimportance of H1s (you can see from our correlation analyses and our ranking models work that H1s appear to have virtually no advantage over just having keywords at the top of a page in large text).

My view is that when someone clicks on a search result listing, they expect to find the thing they've just clicked on. The title is what shows in the SERPs, but if the H1 is substantively different, they're getting what feels like a somewhat different page. That dis-congruous experience can result in high bounce rates and in searcher dis-satisfaction.

In addition, I'm not convinced there's a measurable benefit from differentiated titles vs. H1s. No search engine rep has given guidance on this (in fact, they've stayed conspicuously quiet over the years about whether the H1 does anything at all).

So - there you have it - a small controversy on a small point of on-page optimization. I think the best practice is to do what feels right (neither Todd nor I think the other's opinion will have a negative impact) and, if you're uncertain, test it out on different sets of pages.

My general view though is that there's far better uses of most SEOs time than worrying about H1s

[SteveOllington]

My general view though is that there's far better uses of most SEOs time than worrying about H1s

Yeah but it's fun trying to find out though

What about the Matt Cutts thing, do you think there could be any truth to that?

[randfish]

Just want to point out that personally, I disagree with that assessment and haven't seen anything data-wise to suggest it's an issue. It's hard to believe that Google/Bing would want to penalize so many millions of sites that do this by default (news sites, Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, etc. all have it in default settings either in base or plugins).

That said, Todd usually has good reasons for his recommendations, so would be interesting to probe more deeply.

[SteveOllington]

Well, not meaning to sound like too much of a suck up... but I tend to be of the opinion that what Rand says is always right lol. I therefore must graciously accept defeat on the subject... there's no way I'm going up against you on stuff haha.

I still want to know though... I mean, I totally see what you mean that there's no point in worrying about it as the time is spent better elsewhere, but anything with opinions and evidence from both sides makes me want a definitive tested answer.

[randfish]

I don't know... There's a surprising number of people who've reported hearing Matt say things. Yet, somehow, whenever there's video of him, he magically says next to nothing. I'd be skeptical at best.

[MarieHaynes]

Thanks Rand!  This really makes sense to me.

I've always considered H1 tags a non-entity when it comes to SEO.  I write my H1 tags to add a headline to help the user understand what the page is about.  But my title is really written primarily for search engines (with the idea that it needs to make sense for the reader as well.)

[SteveOllington]

Haha, yeah Matt should be a politician

[dignan99]

If I am understanding Rand and Todd's opinions correctly regarding this subject:

Rand believes it doesn't matter.

Todd believes it does matter and can be beneficial.

To me that would say to err on the side of caution and choose Todd.  Not because he is correct, but because there is no harm in doing so either way according to Rand.

[starplus]

My site dont have H1 AND H2 www.starplusservices.com we need to update our site now do you think that Iwill need to optmize this?

Regards

Sergio

[KeriMorgret]

Hi Sergio,

This is an old thread, and you might want to consider starting a new thread with your specific question. The Beginner's Guide to SEO should also be helpful to you at http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo.

[starplus]

I will do that .

Many Thanks

[jcontraros]

In my experience: there is no significant difference as far as the search engines are concerned. I agree with Rand in that for many users, the first thing they will expect to see is the same title they clicked on via the search engine.

My rule of thumb is always do what makes sense to users. Even if a different H1 tag caused some significant affect such as moving you up on the SERP (unlikely), if the user doesn't get what they expect they will click back. If anyone experiments with this, pay close attention not only to ranking but also to bounce rates. I'd rather be the second result with a 10% bounce rate than the first result with a 90% bounce rate.

[Chedr]

Hi there,  So I'm trying out SEOMOZ for the 1st time + ran a report across my site - it's pulled out a heap of duplicate page titles errors! I've been trying to get my head around this as I have like 30 posts in my blog and the rest of the site is relatively tiny (home, contact us, services, blog) - the duplicate content factor leads me to think that it's due to the Title name being the same as the H1s? - am I going crazy here? I was of the impression that title + h1 the same was the way to go - I feel a bit shattered at the mo trying to work this out. Can anyone kindly shed some light on this? Each of my blog posts have unique names - I don't get it? Thx so much for any notes that you can provide. I'd grtly appreciate some tips on this.

[PremierBusinessCare]

It's your cms causing the problem. duplicate page titles are very different to duplicate H1's which would be regarded as duplicate content.

I suggest you go into your cms and get rid of the dupe titles, remove cache pages, and google fetch them all, in GWT's.

[vernonmack]

What I'm not seeing addressed specifically in the thread is can the KW term within your H1 & Title differ? I get that if the whole title and whole header differ slightly like:

Title: Best Plumber Local |100% Satisfaction Guaranteed!

H1: Best Plumber Local offers 100% Satisfaction Guarantees!

*Please note - not my best copywriting effort at play here

Then it's not worth sweating over, so long as the searcher does't experience a disconnect between he SERP result and and the landing page messaging.

My concern is over the need to target "ugly" KWs - terms that don't fit well in to the UX equation, but have exponentially more search volume than they "prettier" version.  Let's say "plumber local" has 1,000 monthly searches vs "local plumber" that has 300 monthly searches. But "local plumber" is much better for copy/user readability.  Can you use:

Title for the SERP: Best Plumber Local |100% Satisfaction Guaranteed!

H1 for UX: Best Local Plumber offers 100% Satisfaction Guarantees!

...and still be nicely optimized for "plumber local" assuming you can find a smooth way to work it into copy (easier than doing it in an H1), alt tag, and site has otherwise good authority/reputation. Also, ugly KW (plumber local) would be used in the url).

Thanks is advance!