Heading Structure SEO

When writing a SEO article, having a good heading structure is really important because it divides the content into sections and clarifies its hierarchy.

There are 6 main header tags: H1 through H6.

H1: It is the title of your page, each page must have only one H1 header.
H2: This subheading shows the main paragraphs and separate sections of your content. Each page must have at least one H2 header.
H3: They are subsections used to clarify some ideas made in H2. H3 must never stand alone, t should always be underneath an H2 heading.
H4: Used for further clarification for concepts written in H3.
H5 & H6: Same as H3 and H4, they are ultimately used if the content is long and very elaborate.

Why Use Heading Structure?

There are 2 main benefits associated with using headings in your content, SEO related or not. Let's take a look at why header structure is important.

Show Page Structure

With a well-defined header hierarchy, you will give readers an idea about what each paragraph or section will be talking about and give them better accessibility to the content. Readers love to skim through the content before thoroughly reading it.

Improve SEO

Even though Headings don't directly affect your SEO performance, however, a good heading structure means good text quality that is easy to read and access and if the readers enjoy your headers then they will stay longer on your site thus increasing the bounce rate and ultimately a better SEO performance.

How to Use Headers Effectively?

Structure Your Headings

As we talked before, H1 is the main title of the page. H2 is a subheading that divides the text into several sections, and H3 through H6 are subsections that elaborate an idea mentioned in H2. Here is an example:
H1: Health Benefits of Eating Apples
H2: Physical Health Benefits
H3: Good For Skin
H3: Lowers Cholesterol
H2: Mental Health Benefits
H3: May Prevent Parkinson's Disease

Add Keywords to Your Headers

The presence of your focus keyword and other keywords in the page title (H1) and H2 and other subheadings (H3-H6) is a great way to showcase them. But make sure that they are relevant to the corresponding paragraph or section, otherwise Google bots will know that you are spamming your readers and will trank you lower.

Code Example

<h1>Heading 1</h1>
<h2>Heading 2</h2>
<h3>Heading 3</h3>
<h4>Heading 4</h4>
<h5>Heading 5</h5>
<h6>Heading 6</h6>

More Header Tips

Don't use duplicate headers in the same page
Keep the header concise and clear
Make sure they are helpful and give the reader better accessibility to your content
H1 less than 70 characters
Use a single H1
Come up with catchy yet relevant headers
Optimize your headers so that they appear as Featured Snippets

Final Thoughts

Even though header structures do not have a great impact on your website's rank on search engine results

It does, however, help Google Algorithms better understand your content and how it is divided, as well as providing clear guidelines for your readers about your text.