WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: page should contain no more than two h1 elements

for

From: Al Sparber
Date: Jun 15, 2009 2:10PM

From: "Dean Hamack" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >

> On 6/15/09 12:06 PM, "John Foliot" < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
>> There have been some bold claims made in this thread, and when making a
>> claim, I would ask that you back up your assertion with evidence.
>
> SEO articles that say you should only use one H1:
>
> http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol7/promo_no3.htm
>
> http://www.digital-web.com/articles/seo_and_your_web_site/
>
> http://www.gatewaygenerator.com/seo/index.htm
>
> http://bulbwired.com/?p=208
>
> And that's just a few I found in a quick Google search. How many would you
> like John :)
>
> Look, the bottom line is that most of this stuff is anecdotal and not
> based
> on hard facts.
>
> But pretty much all of the evidence suggests that having more than one H1
> (except in special circumstances) *might* be bad for accessibility and
> SEO.
> If there's no benefit to be gained from it, why take the risk?

Evidence that multiple H1 tags impact accessibility or SEO obviously must
carry weight, of course. As for logic, that's another story. It's sort of
like allowing SEO or accessibility experts to rewrite traditional methods of
writing a story. One has to weigh the opinions and decide for himself. From
an author's point of view, multiple same-level headings are fairly natural -
especially if you are using a technology that automatically generates a
structured table of contents. So is it OK to have one H1 and then multiple
H2 or H3 tags?

It is a ridiculous concept that would seem to hamstring the practice of
writing. Maybe that explains the death of classic literature ;-)

--
Al Sparber - PVII
http://www.projectseven.com