H2 vs. H3 Tags for Category Navigation

[Ask4443523]

Hey, all.

I have client that uses

tags in the navigation for its blog.  For example,

tags might appear around "Library," "Recent Posts," etc.  This is handled through their WordPress theme.

This seems fairly standard, but I wonder whether

tags are semantically appropriate.  Since each blog post is fairly lengthy (about 500-1000 words) with multiple

tags, would it be more appropriate to use

tags for this menu navigation?  Are we cutting into the effectiveness of our

tags by using them for menu navigation?

The navigation is certainly an important page element, and it structures content, so it seems that it should use some header tag.  Anyways, your thoughts are greatly appreciated.  I'm a content creator, not an SEO, so this is a bit out of my skillset.

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

Usually, H2s and H3s are reserved for your content structure and prioritization of importance in the content on the page, not in your top navigation.

As your content (should) starts with an H1, this semantically will mess your header structure up because you have an H1 below H2s and H3s that live in your top navigation.

If you like the way that those menu fonts and sizes look, I would suggest looking into CSS Font styling - therefore you can set up how you want your font to look in the menu and have a proper header structure on your page content. This will be better for your On-Site SEO.

Hope this helps - let me know if you have any questions or comments! Good luck!

[Ask4443523]

Thanks so much for the response!

I may have done a bad job of explaining this, so I just want to double-check that I understand you.

The tags are actually below the blog at the bottom of the page; "Library," for instance, might list the months of blog activity below it (January, February, etc.)  I shouldn't have referred to them as a menu.

The reason that I think header tags might be defensible is that they could help a user understand the organizational structure of these sub-categories.

Does that change your answer at all, or do you still recommend handling this element through CSS?  Thanks!

[EGOL]

Patrick gave a great answer above.

Now that you mention they are at the bottom of the page, I would definitely remove the h2 or hwhatever and simply style them with css.

[Etna]

Hi everyone!

Only a year late to this question...

Do you know if anyone has done any A/B testing on how H2s in the nav can negatively affect a website's rankings? I'm on the same page with everyone that it is a big no-no to do, but am getting push back from our development team. They want me to prove that it hurts a website before they change the site. Figured I'd reach out here to see if you any of you have seen tests that prove this.

Thanks you!

-Rachel