Why Having Two H1 Headings is Wrong
I’ve come back to this one several times over the last few years and I have to admit that including two H1 elements on a web page still makes no sense to me. Often you see one for the site or page title and the other for the logo – and a lot of very smart people say that’s fine both technically and in the spotlight of semantics. Here’s why I would consider that to be an unreasonable load of rubbish.
First, I’ll ask the reverse question – if two then why not three? Or four H1 headings? No, that wouldn’t make sense at all. So why do two of them make semantic sense? Really?
OK imagine you have a tree, you’ve inverted it so the trunk is at the top – there is your tree. Looks like a mini Document Object Model (DOM) tree, by the way. Only this is your H1 – H6 header tree. As you progress through that tree you have deepening levels of heading down to level six as appropriate.
Now try drawing that picture again with two H1 headings. Does it make any sense? I strongly doubt it.
To me the idea of a second H1 usually just masks a business need to push the business logo into a more important status for search engines. The semantics, I’d argue, are economic rather than common sense. For example, if there are three H2 headings in the document where you already have two H1 headings – which H1 is the heirarchical parent of which H2?
I don’t particularly give a toss what any famous standardista has said to the contrary, having two of them makes your web page look like bollocks on toast. Like the Sex Pistols just spent the weekend. Yes valid. But pointless.
By the way, yes I’ve read the HTML 4.1 section on Headings which does not explicitly say you can’t have more than one H1 heading on a page. Actually, if we were to interpret specifications on what’s not said then we’re really in for interesting times ahead. The document does mention sections of pages, but even the example does not use two H1 headings so it carries little real weight in my opinion if its used to justify the multiple H1 headings. I’d suggest if you have two sections worth the H1 then you might have two pages! Go figure. Split them up and voila the world makes more sense.
June 7th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Or, lets put it this way…
Say you had two sections to your page… the content and the sidebar. OK say you put a H1 in the content section and a H1 in the sidebar. Is this somehow intended to give more Google emphasis to these headings…??
I mean, as opposed to simply having a H1 Page Heading with a H2 at the top of content area and a H2 at the top of the sidebar.
No matter which way I try to split the argument it really comes back to people just wanting to shout a little louder to Google through some construct like a logo or sidebar header. The information itself can always be marked up satisfactorily using a single H1 with sub-level H2 headings etc. I expect Google can interpret an appropriately set heading structure for its true meaning just fine that way without bending over to say “hey here’s multiple [shouting] top level headings – way important! Don’t miss my logo Mr Google”.