The Google Office Hours podcast answered the important question of whether it matters if the title element and the H1 element match. It’s a good question because Google handles these elements in a unique way that’s different from how traditional SEO thinks about it.
How important is it that the H1 and title tags match?
The question and answer are short. Google’s Gary Illyes answers the question and then links to documentation on how Google produces “title links” on search engine results pages (SERPs).
This is the question:
“…is it important that the title tags match the H1 tag?”
Gary replies:
“No, just do what makes sense from the user’s perspective.”
This is a useful answer, but also missing the explanation of why it is not important that the title tag matches the first heading element.
The title and H1 elements
The title element is located in
section with the other metadata and scripts used by search engines and browsers. The role of
The element is to provide a general but concise description of what the web page is about before a potential site visitor clicks through the SERPs to the web page. Therefore, the title should describe the web page in a way that tells the potential visitor that the web page contains the content on any topic on the page and if that matches what the person is looking for, they will click on it.</p>
<p>So it’s not like the title tag is going to attract a click. Their job is to say this is what’s on the page.</p>
<p>Heading elements (H1, H2, etc.) are now like mini-headings, describing what each section of a web page is about. Except for the first heading, which is usually an H1 (but could be an H2, doesn’t matter to Google).</p>
<p>The first heading provides a concise description of what the web page is about to a site visitor who already knows what the page is about in a general way. So you can say that the H1 element is a bit more specific in a way.</p>
<p>The official W3C HTML <a href="https://www.w3.org/MarkUp/1995-archive/Headings.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documentation</a> because the H1 indicates how the H1 should be used:</p>
<p>“The first heading text is suggested to be appropriate for a reader who is already browsing related information, as opposed to the title tag which should identify the node in a wider context.”</p>
<h2>How does Google use H1 and titles?</h2>
<p>Google uses headings and titles as a source of information about what the web page is about. But it also uses them to create the title link, which is the title displayed in the SERPs. So if the <title> If the item is inappropriate because it has a popular keyword phrase that SEO wants to rank for, but doesn’t describe what the page is about, Google will check the heading tags and use one as the title link.</p>
<p>Twenty years ago it used to be mandatory to put the key phrase you wanted to rank for in the title tag. But ranking factors don’t work like that anymore because Google has natural language processing, neural networks, machine learning, and AI to help it understand concepts and topics.</p>
<p>That’s why the title tag and heading tags aren’t parking spots for the keywords you want to rank for. They are best used to describe the page in a general way (title element) and a bit more specific (H1).</p>
<h2>Google rules for title links</h2>
<p>Google’s Gary Illyes linked to <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/title-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documentation</a> about how Google uses titles and headings to produce title links.</p>
<p>Titles should be descriptive and concise. Yes, use keywords, but remember that the title should accurately describe the content.</p>
<p>Google’s guidelines explain:</p>
<p>“Title links are critical in giving users a quick overview of what a result is about and why it’s relevant to their query. It’s often the primary information people use to decide which result to click on, because which is important to use high-quality title text on your web pages.”</p>
<h2>Avoid boilerplate</h2>
<p>Boilerplate is a phrase that is repeated all over the place. This is usually templated content, such as:</p>
<p>(type of law) Attorneys in (insert city name), (insert state name) – Website Name</p>
<p>Google’s documentation recommends that a potential site visitor be able to distinguish between different pages using title elements.</p>
<p>Here is the recommendation:</p>
<p>“Avoid repetitive or common text <title> elements It is important to have distinct text that describes the content from page to page <title> element for every page on your site.”</p>
<h2>Brand in title tags</h2>
<p>Another helpful tip is about website branding. Google reports that the home page is an appropriate location to provide additional information about the site.</p>
<p>Google provides this example:</p>
<p><title>ExampleSocialSite, a place where people meet and mingle
Additional site information is not appropriate to have on inner pages because it looks really bad when Google ranks more than one page of the website, and it doesn’t take into account what the title tag is supposed to be about.
Google advises:
“… Consider including just your site name at the beginning or end of each one
element, separated from the rest of the text by a delimiter such as a hyphen, colon, or pipe like this:</p>
<p><title>ExampleSocialSite – Sign up for a new account.“
Content Google uses for title links
Google uses the following content to create title links:
“Content a
elements Main visual title displayed on the Heading Elements page, such as </p>
<h1> elements Other content that is large and prominent through the use of style treatments Other text contained on the page Anchor text on the page Text within links that point to the page Structured data of the website”</p>
<h2>Takeaway food:</h2>
<p>Google is choosing the title element to display as the title link. If it’s not a good match, you can use the first heading as your title link in the SERPs. If that’s not good enough, it will look elsewhere on the page. Use the title to describe what the page is about in a general way. Headings are basically section “headings”, so the first heading (or H1) can be an opportunity to describe what the page is about more precisely than the title so that the reader is compelled to start reading or shopping or whatever. i try to do All the headings on a web page together communicate what the whole page is about, like a table of contents. The title element could be considered to serve a similar function to the title of a non-fiction book. The first heading is more specific than the title about what the page is about.</p>
<p>Listen to the question and answer at minute 10:46:</p>
<p class="vcont"><iframe title="English Google SEO office-hours from June 2024" width="760" height="428" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MVH7Lk_zdbo?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Featured image by Shutterstock/Khosro</p>
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