In this article, we will discuss the techniques for detecting and correcting H1 tag errors. As a reminder on these tags’ definition, as well as their role, don’t hesitate to check this article out.
The first step is to identify the H1 tags implemented on a website. During an audit, a crawler is used to locate all the URLs and their tags.
It’s also possible to use other means:
Using a plugin: we can see the tag when we are on the page
By consulting the page’s source code (right click > display the source code, then search for "<H1>")
However, these 2 solutions have a major drawback: we can only have an on-the-fly consultation on a page, and not a complete listing of the whole site.
Case #1: missing tags
Let's analyze the pages that do not contain an H1 tag.
If there is none: so much the better, there is nothing to do
If there are any: locate the number and type of page(s) concerned:
If these are pages to be deindexed (shopping cart, etc.), check that they are deindexed or proceed to deindex them.
If these are low interest pages, like T&Cs or hiring pages, add a H1 tag for clarity, even if it won't have a direct impact on your SEO.
If these are pages supposed to bring SEO traffic: you must quickly add a H1 tag that is optimized according to SEO rules.
Case #2: duplicate tags
Let's move on to duplicate H1 tags. As a reminder, you should never have 2 duplicate H1 tags on a website, because it’s either a sign of duplicate pages, or a sign of several pages targeting the same keyword, which strongly goes against the page and the site’s SEO.
If there is none: so much the better, there is nothing to do
If there are any: locate the number and type of page(s) concerned:
If it’s a H1 tag that the CMS automatically adds in all the pages, such as the brand name or its slogan for example, this H1 must be deleted. In that case, it will also be multiple H1s (see case #5 below).
In the case of product pages with variants (color, size, etc.): we advise you to specify in the H1 tag the unique variant for the product. If there is no SEO interest in this variant (if no one is looking for such a precise request), we even advise you to delete the page and redirect it to a single product page which gathers all the "useless" variants from an SEO point of view. But it all depends on your technical / CMS architecture.
If these are paginated pages: you can ignore it, there is nothing to do.
If these are pages supposed to be different: then simply modify the H1 tags to be more specific to the page’s content. If you’ve got "real estate agency + city" pages, specify the city in the H1 and not just "real estate agency".
If these are duplicate pages. In other words, multiple existing URLs that display exactly the same content, then this is probably a technical issue that needs to be fixed. To do so, choose the one that is linked within the website (= receives links in the site) and make a 301 redirect from the wrong URL to the right one + remove all internal links made at the duplicate URL. Example:
==> Here you have to redirect 301 the pages with "/fr" to the pages without, or the reverse: choose the URL version with the most links within the website or which brings the most traffic.
It’s also necessary to remove all internal links from these duplicate pages so that Google permanently stops visiting them.
Case #3: tags that are too long
As a reminder, the H1 tag must not exceed 70 characters in order to avoid being detected by anti-spam algorithms. We can push up to a hundred characters, but here it’s especially not pleasant from a UX (user experience) perspective.
Beyond 100, the tag becomes too long and you have to go through it again, except for pages that have no SEO value (CGV, hiring, etc.).
Case #4: tags that are too short
It would be unfortunate to have short H1 tags, given that this is the on-page tag accessed second by the engine. A modification to this tag is sometimes enough to gain a lot of positions.
We recommend that you go through all of the H1 tags of less than 30 characters, in order to enrich them with rich semantics from the targeted keyword.
Case #5: multiple tags
As mentioned above, this is mostly an automatic CMS rule that adds an unnecessary H1:
==> Remove this extra H1!
Now you know how to analyze and correct H1 tags! Let's move on to the next point. 😊
Go further on the same theme:
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