Why should your title and H1 tag be different?

[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!