Title Tag Verses H1 Tag. Is having both the same better than different if there's only one clear winner in keyword search volume

[PeteC12]

Hi Mozzers,

I am going through my categories on my eccomerce hire site trying to improve things and just wanted to check this query with you

1. My understanding is that if I have the same H1 and title tag, then that would give more weight for that keyword phrase? Would I also be correct in assuming that the H1 is more important than the title tag or should both be treated as equals in terms of SEO. My dimemla is that for certain products we hire, there's only really one clear winner in terms of keyword phrase. The others I find in keyword planner are way down the volume list , so I have tended to put the H1 and title tag as the same and then have H2 tag and a slightly different heading.

Is that the best philosphy or should I really mix them up , so the the title tag, h1, h2 are different ?

2. Also Currently My on page content mentions the the H1 tag near the beginning of the content. Is this correct or should I really be using the H2 tag phrase near the beginning of the content.

For example - One of the products we hire out is carpet cleaners. Therefore the main keyword phrase is carpet cleaner hire
and for our local pages its' carpet cleaner hire <city name="">.
This is my title tag and H1 tag and then for my h2 tag , I have something like "carpet cleaning equipment" with the content
mentioning carpet cleaner hire near the beginning.</city>

I don't want to look likes its over optimization or mention the word hire to much but being a hire website, it's difficult not to and other keywords that don't mention it in it, are to varied so could increase bounce rates ?.

When I look in GWT against my content keywords - the word hire shows a full bar.

Just wondered what peoples thoughts are if what I am doing it okay?
thanks
Pete

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

Check these resources out:
On-Page SEO: Anatomy of a Perfectly Optimized Page
On-Page Factors

Both of those have a ton of great tips.

That being said - yes, it's fine (especially for a product based page) that your title and H1 tag are relatively the same. If you are that worried about it, you can also set up your title tags for a little variation. For instance...

"Product | Product Category | Brand" - this of course if you have room.

H2s should not be the same as your H1 or title. Take this opportunity to intro a product description or specifications, or even benefits. You can use multiple H2s on a page, just don't go overboard. Make sure that it makes sense when you use a header.

Your H1 should always go before your H2, not vice versa. That's structurally incorrect and not best practice.

Make sure that you don't over optimize for various locations and cities and recycle content. That's what local SEO and listings are for. Google also offers service area listings, so take advantage of those.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[gazzerman1]

Quality is the key question here, the Panda algo is getting very smart.

I would go through Amit singhaL's 23 questions first and determine if you are putting content there for SEO or for the user.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ca/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html

I also read about a test recently done where H4 tags were out performing H1 tags but for the life of me I cant find it!

It makes sense to have correlation between the H1 and the Title and if it is natural for you to repeat the word "hire" as much as you do then there is no harm in it.

There is of course one exception to that rule, Google builds its algo to work for the majority and you always stand a very small percentage chance that you do things correctly and Google takes a dislike, this is unfortunately luck of the draw. (something I hate the most about Google as you will get very little indication).

Also there is no harm in testing different things out on different pages, or even doing and A/B test
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2404033?hl=en-GB

Remember that your title tags should also be worded in a way that will get the highest click through rates or Google will rename them.
More info here: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ca/2012/01/better-page-titles-in-search-results.html

Hope that helps somewhat.

[PeteC12]

Many thanks Patrick and Gary,

Very comprehensive and some great tips here with some good articles links to so I will reading these before I proceed.

Many thanks

Pete

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