Trying to get found online?
Start here.
Subscribe to get your FREE copy of the SEO Kickstart Kit keyword research workbook.
Jump To:
You’ve probably heard that using an H1 tag is “good for SEO.” But what does that actually mean? And more importantly, does it still matter in 2025?
Short answer: Yes. But not for the reasons most people think.
As an SEO strategist, I see this confusion all the time, especially when reviewing websites built with DIY page builders or drag-and-drop templates.
Headings get chosen based on how bold they look, not what they mean structurally.
Let me pull out my megaphone for a moment: H1s aren’t decorative. They’re directional.
They’re structural signals that help search engines and your searchers quickly and efficiently understand what your content is about.
As the search market is increasingly shaped by AI Overviews and LLMs, that clarity matters more than ever.
The good news? This is one of the easiest on-page SEO elements to get right. And doing it well can improve your chances of getting found in search, help your content show up in summarized results, and make your website more accessible and user-friendly.
What Exactly Is An H1 Heading?
Think of your H1 tag as the headline of a newspaper article or the title on a book cover.
It’s the first, most prominent piece of content on the page and it should make it immediately clear what the page is about.
In HTML, an H1 is written like this:
<h1>Your Main Heading Goes Here</h1>
Simple, right?
But this isn’t just about code. The H1 signals to both humans and search engines: Here’s the main topic of this page.
It’s usually the first thing someone sees when they land on your blog post, sales page, or service description and if it’s doing its job, it confirms that they’re in the right place.
The key here? Your page should have one H1. Not two. Not zero. Not five because you liked how the font looked. Just one.
And while it should include your primary keyword if possible, the priority is clarity.
If someone glances at the heading and can’t tell what the page is about, it’s time to rewrite it.
What Are Header Tags and How Are They Supposed to Work?
If the H1 is your headline, the rest of your header tags, H2 through H6, are the scaffolding that structure the content.
They organize your ideas, create hierarchy, and make it easier for both readers and search engines to navigate your page.
Here’s the general breakdown:
- H1 = the main topic of the page (you only need one).
- H2s = the big sections of your content.
- H3s = supporting details or subsections under an H2.
- H4-H6 = rarely needed, but available if you’re getting deep into nested content.
Think of it like an outline:
<h1>How to Train for Your First Half Marathon</h1>
<h2>Choose the Right Training Plan</h2>
<h3>Assess your current fitness level</h3>
<h3>Pick a realistic timeline</h3>
<h3>Understand your weekly mileage needs</h3>
<h2>Build a Weekly Routine</h2>
<h3>Long runs</h3>
<h3>Speed workouts</h3>
<h3>Rest and recovery days</h3>
<h2>Stay Healthy While You Train</h2>
<h3>Nutrition basics for endurance</h3>
<h3>Preventing common injuries</h3>
<h3>Listening to your body</h3>
<h2>Race Day Prep</h2>
<h3>What to eat before the race</h3>
<h3>Gear checklist</h3>
<h3>Pacing strategies</h3>
Notice how each H3 is part of a group under a related H2? That’s intentional. If you only have one H3, it might be a sign that you don’t need that level of nesting or that you’re missing an opportunity to flesh out the section more clearly.
Here’s another thing: your headers don’t just make content easier to skim.
They help Google (and AI tools like ChatGPT or Bing’s Copilot) understand the relationships between different pieces of information.
Used well, they create a clean, logical structure that improves both SEO and user experience.
Used poorly? They confuse everyone: readers, bots, and future-you trying to update the post six months from now.
Do Header Tags Still Matter For SEO In 2025?
Short answer? Yes. But let’s talk about why. Because it’s not about ticking an old-school SEO checkbox.
Header tags, especially your H1, still play an important role in helping search engines and readers understand what your content is about. And while Google’s more flexible than it used to be, structure still matters.
They Support Topical Clarity
Your H1 tells Google, “This is the main thing this page covers.” It’s one of the first signals that helps search engines connect your content to a search query. Subheadings like H2s and H3s reinforce that topic and help organize related ideas.
They Improve Accessibility and User Experience
Headings aren’t just for bots. Screen readers use them to help users navigate. Your readers use them to skim. Clear, descriptive headers make your content easier to read and more inclusive. That improves usability, which supports SEO performance over time.
They Help AI Parse Your Content
Search features powered by large language models (LLMs) rely on structural cues. When your content is broken into logical, clearly labeled sections, it’s easier for AI to understand what it’s about and pull accurate summaries.
Google’s Smarter Than It Used to Be
Here’s the nuance: Google’s crawlers aren’t rigid. If you use more than one H1 or skip a heading level here and there, your page won’t tank. What matters more is the overall clarity and logic of your content.
John Mueller, Google’s Search Advocate, has confirmed that multiple H1s won’t hurt your rankings. What does matter? Making your content easy to understand, for both users and machines.
So What’s the Best Practice?
- Use one clear, descriptive H1 per page
- Break your content into logical sections using H2s
- Use H3s (and beyond) when needed to nest related ideas
- Avoid using heading tags purely for visual styling
- Focus on clarity and hierarchy, not perfection
Header tags aren’t SEO hacks. But they are signals.
And when they’re used well, they help your content get seen, understood, and acted on.
How Do AI Overviews and LLMs Interpret Header Tags?
AI-enhanced search is changing how content gets surfaced and structure still matters. It just matters a little differently than it used to.
Here’s what’s happening under the hood:
AI Search Tools Use a Hybrid Approach
Google’s AI Overviews (SGE), Bing’s AI answers, and tools like Perplexity aren’t just running on pure LLMs. They use a combination of traditional indexing and large language models to generate search summaries.
That means:
- Yes, they do parse your HTML, including header tags like H1s and H2s, and so on during the indexing phase.
- Then, they feed the indexed content into an LLM, which reads and interprets it semantically to generate a summary or overview.
In this context, structured headers act as signposts. They help both the indexing system and the LLM understand what your content covers and how each section relates to the whole.
Pure LLMs Don’t See Tags or Formatting
If you’re interacting with a pure LLM, like ChatGPT or Claude, they’re not actually seeing the HTML at all. They get plain text. No bold. No italic. No headers. No tags.
They rely entirely on language patterns to figure out what’s important. So while something might read like a heading to a human, unless the text spells it out clearly, the model isn’t getting any structural clues.
In other words:
- You can’t rely on formatting to convey meaning.
- You have to write clearly enough that the context speaks for itself.
Why It Still Makes Sense to Use Real Headers
If your goal is to be visible in AI-enhanced search tools (like Google’s SGE), HTML structure still plays a role. Those systems do recognize header tags, bold text, and emphasis when parsing your page.
From there, a well-structured post with clear, relevant headings makes it easier for the LLM to pull the right content into a summary or snapshot.
On the flip side, vague or decorative headings? They make it harder for AI to figure out what your post is actually saying. That means you’re less likely to get featured because the model isn’t confident in what you’re offering.
What This Means for Your SEO Strategy
- Use header tags correctly. Not for style, but to reflect real structure.
- Write clear, descriptive headings. Think “informative” over “clever.”
- Focus on semantic clarity. What’s the topic? What’s the takeaway? Make it easy to tell.
- Don’t stress over H2 vs. H3 perfection. Focus on logic and flow.
If you want to show up in AI-powered search results, structure and clarity give you a major advantage. You’re not writing for the bots, but you are writing in a way that makes your content legible to them.
Should Your SEO Title and H1 Be the Same?
Not necessarily. And not always.
Your SEO title (also called the meta title) and your H1 tag often get lumped together, but they serve different purposes and optimizing them as a pair gives you more control over both search visibility and user experience.
What’s the Difference?
SEO Title (Meta Title)
- What shows up in search results, browser tabs, and social shares
- Designed to get the click
- Ideally between 45-65 characters
- Needs to be clear, compelling, and keyword-aligned
H1 Tag (On-Page Title)
- What shows up at the top of your webpage content
- Designed to confirm the click, as in “Yes, you’re in the right place”
- Has a little more room for context or nuance
- Should reinforce the topic clearly and immediately
When They Should Match
Sometimes the simplest approach is the best one. If your SEO title already nails clarity, relevance, and keyword alignment, it can often double as your H1.
This works well when:
- The title is short, direct, and mirrors the main page topic
- You want a seamless search-to-landing-page experience
- You’re optimizing for a single, clear search intent
When They Shouldn’t Match
There are also good reasons to make them different, strategically. For example:
- Your SEO title needs to be punchy and click-worthy for Google’s limited space
- Your H1 can afford to be more conversational, detailed, or aligned with your brand voice
- You want to meet the reader with a slightly warmer tone once they land
Best Practices
- Make sure both clearly reflect the page topic
- Include your primary keyword in both
- Avoid misleading titles. Your H1 should back up what your SEO title promises
- Think about the flow: Does your H1 reassure the reader they’re in the right place?
Common H1 Tag Mistakes to Avoid
Using an H1 tag isn’t hard but it’s easy to get wrong when you’re focused on design, not structure. These are some of the most common issues I see in audits and site reviews, especially on DIY-built websites or overly customized templates.
1. Skipping the H1 Altogether
Sometimes page builders strip it out. Sometimes it gets forgotten. Either way, if your page doesn’t have an H1, you’re missing a clear opportunity to signal the topic of your content. Google’s pretty good at figuring it out anyway—but why make it harder?
2. Using Multiple H1 Tags for Styling
Just because a font looks good doesn’t mean it should be an H1.
I see this all the time: people use H1s repeatedly throughout a page to style big, bold text like calls-to-action or quotes. That confuses the page structure and sends mixed signals about what the main content is actually about.
Stick to one H1 per page. Use your page builder’s design tools to style the rest.
3. Writing Vague or Clever H1s That Obscure Meaning
“Helping You Live Your Best Life”
“Where Passion Meets Purpose”
“Solutions For A Better Tomorrow”
These don’t help your reader, or Google, understand what your page is about. Save the punchlines for subheadings or section intros. Your H1 should be plainspoken and specific. It should immediately answer the question: What’s this page about?
4. Stuffing Keywords Into Your H1
Yes, you want your primary keyword in your H1, but not at the expense of clarity or readability.
Don’t turn your H1 into a clunky list of terms just because you’re trying to rank.
Write for humans first. Google’s watching how they interact with your page.
TL;DR: Best Practices for Using H1s (and Headers) Strategically
1. Use One Clear H1 Per Page
Your page should have exactly one H1. It’s the main headline that communicates the core topic. Think of it as the anchor for everything else on the page.2. Include Your Primary Keyword (But Naturally)
Don’t wedge your keyword in awkwardly.
Instead, write a headline that reflects how your audience would search for this content. If your H1 matches the words you imagine them typing into the search bar, you’re on the right track.
3. Match the H1 to the Page’s Purpose
Homepages, service pages, and blog posts each have different jobs to do.
A blog post H1 should be clear and specific about the topic. A service page H1 might reflect the offer or the transformation. A homepage H1 should make it clear who you help, exactly how you help them and the transformation you stupport.Whatever the context, the H1 should meet the visitor where they are.
4. Use H2s and H3s to Build Logical Flow
Once you’ve nailed your H1, use H2s to organize your sections and H3s to support them.
If someone skimmed your page just by reading the headers, would they understand the main ideas? If not, rewrite them.
5. Be Descriptive, Not Just Catchy
A clever headline might feel fun, but it doesn’t help your visibility or your reader if it obscures the topic of the section. Say what you mean, clearly.6. Write for Both Readers and Machines
Header tags should improve human readability and machine parsing. That means use plain language, logical structure, and clear connections between sections. It also means resisting the urge to choose your headings by font size alone.SEO Wins Start With Clarity
The point of using H1s and structured headers isn’t to follow rules. It’s to make your content easier to understand. For search engines. For AI. And for the people you’re trying to reach.
If your site structure is confusing, your content gets overlooked. Not because it isn’t good, but because it’s hard to follow, hard to parse, or hard to trust.
Clear structure is one of the most practical ways to improve how your content is interpreted and whether it shows up at all.
The SEO Kickstart Kit helps you catch those issues early. It’s a free resource that walks you through the key things Google looks for and shows you how to spot where your site might be underperforming.
→ Download The SEO Kickstart Kit and get clear on what’s working and what’s not, so you can finally be findable.
