Using H3 vs. H2 Headings on Articles

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   Joy At Homeposted 4 years ago

   Question: Because of how headings and subheadings are "read" by Google, is it better to use H3 formatting for all headings which are intended for the reader, but not Google? For instance, those intended to break up information, but not start a new section of thought.
   I have read varying opinions on this practice, and have researched the topic without finding definite answers. Some good hubbers say that they have gone to the extra effort to insert otherwise blank text boxes with a line of H3 text, above sections to set them apart, but not make Google notice the headings. At least one hubber then had these H3 headings converted to regular H2 headings by a well-meaning editor.
   If having too many larger headings in an article confuses Google or looks spammy, why is the default title box in text boxes set to H2? Wouldn't articles stand a better chance of ranking well in Google if a writer must be intentional about using H2 headings? And why is there nothing about this in the main how-to's? I've been here almost since HP's inception, but had to really dig to find this info, as well as other obscure SEO points as they relate to HP's format and options.

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      lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      It's very simple because it works with human readers and Google in the same way. For those that have never written a research paper, it may not be that obvious but as Bev says.
      
      Title: H1, headings or chapters if it makes it easier to understand are H2, subheadings and subchapters would be H3.
      
      It is a pity HP does not allow H4 anymore, I used to use them on some articles.

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         Joy At Homeposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks everybody for the interest. I've been using the headings appropriately, I think, but have been wondering if I could do better, as a number of my newer articles are not getting moved automatically to niche sites. I've always written primarily for the reader and secondarily for Google, but it never hurts to improve technique.
         In any case, most of my articles are high (or top) in Google for their categories, so I'm probably overthinking this.

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            lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            If they are not getting moved it is not because of the wrong use of headings unless you are doing something really weird like have entire paragraphs in headings which I am sure you do not have.

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      NateB11posted 4 years agoin reply to this

      According to this article, headings are not important in terms of ranking, but I guess tell the search engine what your article is about; which seems to be saying that it is actually a factor in ranking and SEO. Typical convoluted SEO article and Google explanation.
      
      At any rate, it seems that the importance lies in letting the search engine understand the content/text of the article in terms of what it is about. Which they are differentiating from use of keywords in headings. The differentiation is negligible to me since I know I can rank with the proper keywords in the title. Not only that, but how else are the headings going to help Google understand what your article is about without you using the right words in them? This little fine point that Google is making, as usual, kind of escapes me.
      
      It kind of seems like this on-going double-talk that Google spouts to convince everyone of the lack of importance of keywords, but I know that I have written articles with the proper keyphrases that worked for me and I used to have a site that was an exact match domain name for keywords where I ranked #1 and regularly sold Amazon products.
      
      https://www.searchenginejournal.com/hea … 817/#close

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   theraggededgeposted 4 years ago

   I don't think about it much; it depends on what looks good for the article. I go for H2 for subheadings and H3 for sections below subheadings.
   
   You can ignore the box and put your H3 in the text capsule itself.

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   Miebakagh57posted 4 years ago

   Bev, this H2 or H3 issue is strange to me. What does the H symbolized? Heading? Thanks.

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      theraggededgeposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, 'heading'. H1 is your title. H2 is a subtitle. H3 is a smaller subtitle.
      
      You can add H2 and H3 by highlighting the text then clicking on the down-arrow next to 'paragraph' in the text capsule.

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      lobobrandonposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, heading. It's HTML code.

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