Time to review redundant H1 tags

[cpnmm]

Hi,

I have put a decription in h1 at the top of each of my pages to describe the page and contain the keywords I want for the search engines.

With the new Florida update, is it now time to remove these tags? The text could be as easily presented using my base font and their is no real reason for the user to have them as H1.

Thanks.

[Mike]

See if you get penalized first.

[chromate]

Yeah, I wouldn't get rid of them unless you've been wiped from the SERP's all together.

[s2kinteg916]

i doubt h1 tags would get penalized i do believe there is something fishy with anchor text though....

[chromate]

Not in my case. All my anchor text has my exact primary keyword and I haven't had any problems.

[Mike]

I'm not sure what to think on H1 tags really. Some are saying that they are part of googles new penalizing system, and others are saying they are not.

[Best.Flash]

One theory is automated link exchanges are a major cause as people who've set these up tend to use the same anchor/alt text in all exchanges.

The idea being that if the majority of incoming links (from reciprocated sites) all use the same / or very similar text pointing to one page that's optimised for those terms you'll be dropped for only those terms.

[Westech]

But if this is true you'll be dropped completely for those terms, right? Or do you think that you'll be kept in the results but penalized?

[chromate]

All my incoming links have exactly the same text, with matching text for the h1 tags and title tags etc etc. No problems for me <shrug>

[Best.Flash]

Originally posted by Westech
But if this is true you'll be dropped completely for those terms, right? Or do you think that you'll be kept in the results but penalized?

No, penalised.


Originally posted by chromate
All my incoming links have exactly the same text, with matching text for the h1 tags and title tags etc etc. No problems for me <shrug>

Are you talking about chrosys.com ? if so are you linking back from your site to WP?

[chromate]

No, not chrosys.com. I'm not bothered about the rankings of that site at all. I'm talking about other sites I own, and yeah, they do feature number of return links.

[Best.Flash]

Not that it sounds like your that interested but....

are they popular commercial keywords your targeting that return Adwords Ad's on a Google search?

and would you care to share the URL's so anyone who's interested can look into this theory further.

[chromate]

Yeah, it is a reasonably popular term and has lots of commercial linkings. Don't really want to disclose the site just yet as I don't want to invite any competition (feeling vulnerable), sorry :) Maybe after the next update. But then, after the next update, we should have a clearer picture anyway.

[Best.Flash]

I know what you mean about keeping quite about a site before you've got a good toe hold.

NP :)

[Chris]

I don't think there is an overoptimization penalty on anchor text or anything else.

[s2kinteg916]

for some reason i have 2 important terms one i optimized alot more and im totally nowhere to be found and the other im 4th...it also has like around 5 or 6 instances vs like 30...

[Mike]

Originally posted by Chris
I don't think there is an overoptimization penalty on anchor text or anything else.

I thought there was? Didn't you change some of the anchor text on one of your sites because of this? I'm sure I read something like that on sitepoint...