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Re: page should contain no more than two h1 elements

for

From: Karl Groves
Date: Jun 15, 2009 12:30PM

> I don't think it "harms" the end user or adversely affects
> accessibility to
> use more than one h1.


Neither do I, frankly. Less-than-ideal form? Probably, but that depends
on the structure of the document, really, and it is perfectly valid and
appropriate to use multiple H1s so long as the document's structure
warrants it, IMO.



> It will however hurt your Google rankings,

Direct from Matt Cutts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIn5qJKU8VM

Anytime you have an SEO question, always go to Matt Cutts. Anytime someone
makes a claim about SEO, go to Matt Cutts. ;-)


and
> it's a
> violation of semantics/best practices.

Do you have a source for this claim?


Again, I'm only playing Diablo Advocatus. However, we should avoid making
proclamations which don't have much basis in hard data or, barring that,
LOADS of anecdotal evidence from the impacted population(s).


Karl




>
>
> On 6/15/09 10:52 AM, "Karl Groves" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> wrote:
>
> > Just playing Diablo Advocatus a bit here, but I'm unaware of any
> > information - normative or informative - in any accessibility
> guidelines,
> > be it Section 508, WCAG 1.0 or WCAG 2.0 which dictates the use of one
> and
> > only one H1 element. In fact, the only information presented
> specific to
> > the elements H1-H6 discusses it informatively and the guidelines say
> two
> > things: 1) Developers shouldn't skip levels (i.e. no H1 to H3) and,
> 2)
> > Developers shouldn't use headings to create font effects.
> >
> > This begs the question: What is the actual harm done to end users if
> > multiple H1s are presented in a document? (Barring, of course, the
> misuse
> > of them because they're out of order).
>
>
>