Is it okay to leave off H1 tags?

[amybethmegjo]

I know that SEO uses H1 and H2 mainly and there should only be one H1 and there can be multiple H2 tags. But the site I’m reviewing generally has no H1 on a page and multiple H2 tags. The Page Title reflects the title of the page, so maybe this is okay as is? They have the styling down just so, so I don’t want to make them change it if it’s okay.

[BlueCorona]

Hello,

You are exactly right—there _should _be one (and only one) H1 tag on every page! While it is possible to rank organically without them, you are missing out a big opportunity to optimize your site if you do not include them in your content. If SEO is a priority in your site's function, I would highly recommend adding one H1 tag to every page. The visual design of websites is not a specialty of mine, but I believe that you can customize the styling of your H1 tags so that they do not change the look of your site.

Hope this helps!

[amybethmegjo]

Thank you! Yes we can do it stylistically no problem, but it's extra hours of work as we're trying to meet a deadline. I wondered if it was worth it but from what you say, it is for sure! I really appreciate the quick response, I recommend this change.

One more thing. It seems like the H1 would naturally be the same as the Page Title. Is this a wasted opportunity? Should we try to make the Page title the main keyword and the H1 slightly different, a related phrase to the page title?

[ViviCa1]

It's worth changing it in my opinion. When I joined my company, they also didn't use H1 tags and essentially used Hx tags as styling tags (which they are not). Even just all the basic on-page SEO has had a very noticeable effect on traffic.

That said, if you are working to a deadline, I would say you have to weigh your priorities. Not using correct Hx structure won't kill your SEO, it's just a missed opportunity. So do it, but if it has to wait a while, it's not going to be a massive issue.

Changing the styling should be fairly easy. Simply copy the styling used for H2 to H1 and then update your website (template) to use H1 for the main header on each page.

H1 and page title don't have to be absolutely identical but it makes sense for them to be fairly similar. So yes, you can use keyword variations, but if they are too different that might make it look spammy - both need to accurately describe the content of the page.