When you write blog posts or articles online, the flow and format of the post is very important. If you are just writing and writing never ending posts or articles, it will sometimes overwhelm your readers though it has very good information. You can just read through your post once or twice before its being published and it may ring your bell. I don't believe writing posts just using text is can claimed as bad. It's about keeping reader attention attached to your writing. Here, I'm gonna talk about an element which could help guide readers and structure your writing - Headings. Have you been using headings in your posts or articles?
Headings Get Attention
I have seen many bloggers have been using headings in their posts. I mean, not post titles, but headings used in their posts. Headings are very strong and effective in posts, if you use them meaningfully. Take a look at newspaper articles and see how attractive they are sometimes to get your attention. Headings can be used to give a clue to readers or reflect what they about to read. Obviously, you can use different kind of headings with different wordings, meanings and formattings. Simply different ways to get attention. Personally, I did use sort of headings without giving clues to readers in some posts. Writing is an art, make use of it in your own way without spoiling its true meaning.
Here I'm not going to refer "How to Use Best Headlines". Well, My friend Sylviane Nuccio has a post written about usage of effective headlines which helped me improve my blogging experience. As I explore and read online, I noticed some bloggers using headings but not quite effectively. I mean not about the meaning of headings or how they were phrased, but they weren't aware of using HTML header tags for their headings appears in posts. Obviously, the readers would be able to identify them as headings by just looking at them as they differentiate from normal text. But search engine bots and automated tools such as news aggregators can't.
Aren't We Suppose to Write for Readers?
Yes we are. The best priority would be our readers and always will be. Remember, when it comes to online, readers may or may not read your content directly visiting your blog or website. They may use news readers or such tools and there is always search engines bots awaiting for your fresh content to be crawled and indexed. So, while you are writing your great piece of unique content for readers, taking few simple steps to optimize your content for such automated tools would enhance exposure of your content too. Wouldn't you care? Well, I don't insist ;)
Standard HTML header tags are as follows - <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>. Simply, their sizes are different. They are meant to use in different levels. For example, <h1> tag used for top-level headings. Under that <h2> headings. Next level is <h3> and so on. Below you can see how they are looks like.
Though <h1> is used for top-level headings, in blogging and writing online, <h1> tag would be used for post or article title as a standard. So headings used in the content would start with <h2> header tags and you can use up to <h6>. Obviously you can change sizes of header tags if you need to.
If you are in Blogger blogging platform, you can easily define header tags for headings without manually tagging them. Use heading options in Blogger Post Editor and your headings will tag automatically. Here's available heading options in Blogger.
Heading - This option will tag your heading with <h2> header tag
Subheading - This option will tag your heading with <h3> header tag
Minor heading - This option will tag your heading with <h4> header tag
The use of HTML header tags for your headings would be helpful for search engine bots to index your pages in structured manner. Once bots identify your headings defined with header tags, they will assume your headings represent content beneath them. So as search bots index your pages in structured manner while noticing headings you have been using, search engines could serve better for web searchers. So it will be a plus point in SEO too. However if you don't use header tags for headings, search bots will just treat them as normal text.
What are HTML Header Tags?
Standard HTML header tags are as follows - <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, <h6>. Simply, their sizes are different. They are meant to use in different levels. For example, <h1> tag used for top-level headings. Under that <h2> headings. Next level is <h3> and so on. Below you can see how they are looks like.
Though <h1> is used for top-level headings, in blogging and writing online, <h1> tag would be used for post or article title as a standard. So headings used in the content would start with <h2> header tags and you can use up to <h6>. Obviously you can change sizes of header tags if you need to.
If you are in Blogger blogging platform, you can easily define header tags for headings without manually tagging them. Use heading options in Blogger Post Editor and your headings will tag automatically. Here's available heading options in Blogger.
Heading - This option will tag your heading with <h2> header tag
Subheading - This option will tag your heading with <h3> header tag
Minor heading - This option will tag your heading with <h4> header tag
Benefits of Using HTML Header Tags
The use of HTML header tags for your headings would be helpful for search engine bots to index your pages in structured manner. Once bots identify your headings defined with header tags, they will assume your headings represent content beneath them. So as search bots index your pages in structured manner while noticing headings you have been using, search engines could serve better for web searchers. So it will be a plus point in SEO too. However if you don't use header tags for headings, search bots will just treat them as normal text.
Not only search engines, but also tools such as news readers where people use to read blogs, make use of headings defined with header tags. Such tools are capable of identifying headings and automatically build a heading list for readers to navigate through the post easily. It will improve reader experience. So instead of using styled or formatted texts, using header tags for headings is very productive and your content will be well formatted.
Abuse and Misuse of Headings
Actually, HTML header tags were introduced to define headings for online content. But sometimes people weren't aware of that. Now you know the advantage of using header tags. Your content would be search engine friendly with that. That's where I need to refer now.
Though usage of headings has a SEO value, just don't start to use headings in each of your posts or articles blindly. Use headings to structure and guide your readers through the post or to get attention. You can experiment with that, but don't abuse it. Make sure you are adding value to your content with headings.
I haven't seen misusing of header tags yet. Anyway, don't use header tags for any other purposes. Don't use them with normal text to emphasis somethings. In that case, you can use some styles or different font sizes. Just use HTML header tags for your headings only.
Though usage of headings has a SEO value, just don't start to use headings in each of your posts or articles blindly. Use headings to structure and guide your readers through the post or to get attention. You can experiment with that, but don't abuse it. Make sure you are adding value to your content with headings.
I haven't seen misusing of header tags yet. Anyway, don't use header tags for any other purposes. Don't use them with normal text to emphasis somethings. In that case, you can use some styles or different font sizes. Just use HTML header tags for your headings only.
Finally...
I hope you got the idea of using header tags for your posts or articles. Here I'm not encouraging you to use headings everytime. As I have seen bloggers misusing it, my intention is to help you to use header tags appropriately when writing content. Just a little help. Eventually it will improve accessibility of your content and it will be more SEO friendly too. If you have more tips on using header tags, I'm all ears.
Enjoy :-)