How To Correctly Use H1-H3 Heading Tags In WordPress

If you’re looking at heading tags and wondering how to use them, you’re in the right place.

 

Using headings and their meta tags effectively plays a crucial and highly effective role in making your content readable and accessible and improving the website’s SEO.

In this blog post, we will break down and demystify how to use H1-H3 heading tags in WordPress, from the why to the how, best practices and most importantly — why it’s necessary to use headings in the first place.

Why Do You Need To Use Headings In WordPress?

 

If you’re wondering what a heading looks like, you’ve just read one. 

Headings are like signposts in your written content, guiding readers and search engines through your text’s structure and general outline. They are typically larger and more prominent than regular text, acting as markers and separators for your document’s different paragraphs, sections, or topics. 

In digital writing, headings are often displayed in bold or larger font sizes, making them stand out from the rest of the text. By using headings, you create a hierarchy that organises your content, making it easier for readers to scan and understand your message. 

Headings are not just about aesthetics, however. Headings significantly improve the readability and accessibility of your content and how highly the content ranks on Google.

Improve Readability

Headings break your content into easily digestible sections that are reader-friendly and, therefore, simple for people to understand. People often skim web pages, so headings help them find the information they’re looking for.

SEO Benefits

Search engines like Google use headings to understand your content’s structure and hierarchy. When headings are correctly formatted, they increase your chances of a higher SEO ranking and make it easier for users to find your website.

Accessibility

Using heading tags in WordPress makes your content easier for screen readers and other assistive technologies to understand and interpret your content. Screen readers, voice recognition, reading assistants and other technologies make your website widely accessible to a broader audience. As a result, you get more traffic from an audience that appreciates being able to read your content.

Best Practices For Using H1-H3 Heading Tags in WordPress

 

When using H1-H3 headings, best practices must be in place. Start with an informative H1 heading that briefly summarises and captures the central theme of your content, followed by H2 headings to divide your topics into manageable sections. 

If you want to ensure a logical and structured outline that improves readability and SEO performance, use H3 headings for subsections.

H1 Tag

Just as the title of a book is an introduction, the H1 tag introduces the topic of your page or post. In WordPress, the title of the post or page typically acts as the H1 tag by default. When using the H1 tag, it’s important to ensure it accurately reflects the content and contains relevant keywords for SEO.

Use H1 Once

A common mistake that’s often made is to use more than one H1 tag. It’s imperative that H1 is used only once. Google reads H1 tags to categorise webpages and add context to them. Where there is more than one H1 tag on a page, Google will struggle to categorise it, resulting in the page ranking dropping further down the search engine results page.

Include A Title Tag

While there seems to be no difference between the H1 and title tags, they both serve very different purposes. Title tags don’t show up on the webpage. Instead, they appear on search results pages and at the top of web browser tabs.

H1 tags, on the other hand, are what users see on the page as the main heading. It’s recommended by Google to match your H1 tag to your title tag to maintain consistency of accuracy for your audience. It’s also a good idea to ensure the title and H1 tag are similar but not exactly the same. Don’t make them vastly different either — your audience will feel confused by the lack of consistency.

Make Sure To Include Keywords

For the best chance of appearing high on Google’s search results page, it’s essential that keywords are included in headings. When incorporating keywords into your headings, use them naturally. Make your heading stand out with relevant keywords that are also relatable to your target audience.

In general, this is the best way to include keywords in heading tags in WordPress:

• H1 — include primary keywords
• H2 — include primary keywords at least once, as well as secondary keywords
• H3 and other headings — it’s not a must to include keywords but advisable for the sake of relevance and context.

Use H2 For Subheadings

If we continue using the book analogy, H2 tags are like the chapter titles of a book. H2 tags are great for organising your content and dividing it into sections. 

Every H2 tag introduces a new topic within the article or blog relevant to the text under the heading for better readability and easy digestion of the content. There’s no limit to how many H2 tags you can include. Theoretically, it’s possible to include an infinite number of H2 tags, but the best practice is using H2s sequentially.

H3 Tags For Subsections

For more condensed content that needs dividing out and structuring, H3 tags are your go-to. H3 headings provide structure beneath the H2 headings and are ideal for subtopics or subsections. 

Like H2 tags, ensure that H3 headings are descriptive and relevant to the content beneath them.

Maintain A Logical Hierarchy

Heading tags should follow a logical structure and hierarchy. In simpler terms, avoid jumping straight from H2 to H4 tags without using H3 in between. 

Each level of the structured hierarchy indicates a more detailed topic or subsection.

Keep It Short & Concise

Headings should be short, brief, and concise. Make an effort to sum up each section with just a few words. The idea is to make it easier for readers to understand your content structure quickly and easily. As mentioned above, don’t forget to include keywords.

Don’t Use Headings Too Much

Although heading tags in WordPress are essential in organising your article’s content, it’s also important not to overdo them. Too many headings can make reading difficult and confusing, and lessen its desired impact. Use H1-H3 tags for most of your content while saving H4-H6 for very specific situations.

Consistency Of Style

Throughout the entire website, keep your heading styles consistent with font style, size and colour that match your website’s overall look and feel — something that complements the website branding. Consistency helps create a polished and professional look.

How To Implement Headings In WordPress

 

Now that we’ve discussed their rationale and best practices, let’s get into the finer details of H1-H3 tags in WordPress. 

Classic Editor

Adding headings in the Classic Editor is simple and straightforward. Once your content has been written or edited, highlight the text you want to use as a heading and choose the “Paragraph” dropdown from the formatting menu. 

You’ll see a list of available heading levels — H1, H2, H3, etc. Select the appropriate heading level, and you’ll see your text is now a heading.

Block Editor (Gutenberg)

Heading addition is made more accessible by the Block Editor in WordPress (Gutenberg). This is how:

• In the Block Editor, create or modify your post or page.
• To add a heading, click on the paragraph block there.
• The “Block” tab is located in the block settings on the right.
• Choose the heading level you want to use under the “Block” tab.
• To ensure that your content has the ideal structure, you can also quickly reorder and nest headings using the Block Editor.

Head Up Your Blog Post With Heading Tags in WordPress

 

When it comes to WordPress, headings are an underrated tool of content organisation when it comes to blogs and articles. H1-H3 tags increase accessibility, improve readability and boost the SEO ranking of a website. You can use headings to their most optimised and maximum potential by adhering to best practices, such as starting with H1, using H2 for subheadings and so on, ensuring you maintain a logical hierarchy that makes your post look visually appealing.

Whether using the Classic Editor or the modern Block Editor, adding and styling headings has never been more uncomplicated and straightforward in WordPress. So, go ahead and make your content stand out by using well-organised headings — readers generally welcome structured content as it allows them to skim through before they decide to read through the whole post.

Keep in mind that creating great content involves more than just what you say. When you utilise H1-H3 tags properly, you’re more than likely to receive more engagement and increased traffic to your website. Use headings wisely, and you’ll get a loyal audience that’ll keep returning for more.

Empowered English — Write Blogs With Great Headings

 

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Talk to the team at Empowered English and see how we can help with all your content needs.

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