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Help with H1 and H2 tags


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We have finished our site and have text on the main page, category pages, product pages, our information pages, etc. We have a lot of content, RSS feeds, meta tags, Cname and Pname, etc. I know this is all good for SE's but non of the pages H1 or H2 tagged so I feel I am missing out on the maximum benifit of all the work done. The question is "How do you H1 and H2 a page and what are the benifits of doing it"???? Any help, suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

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The benefits are for document structure!

 

In the past the H tags were (and still are) abused by the so called blackhat SEO experts. However, sensible and logical use of them adds value to your document.

 

The H tags are used exactly as an outline of a page would be created. You start with main topics (h1's) and then each subtopic will be nested (h2, h3, etc). If you view your page with the W3C validator it should actually look like a logical outline. It it doesn't then you can be assured that your document has NO STRUCTURE or BAD STRUCTURE. A good rule of thumb is to make sure that the outline rendered by W3C actually makes sense and flows logically.

 

Once you have the document properly structured you'll most likely want to use CSS to adjust their presentation. The most useful CSS attributes that I use with H tags are:

color:#666666;
font-size:12px;
display:inline;

Those 3 attributes will allow you to use the H tags inline and not have to resort to the usual block style of presentation. Generally speaking if you want to present the H tags inline with a paragraph the above will work (just add salt to taste).

 

A point to keep in mind is that use of proper H tags is great for not only organizing your flow but also so engines can associate related data on that topic. The importance of easily indexed resources for search engines is becoming increasingly important. The cutting edge of this is with XML or OPML feeds of your content. Read this article which is hosted on SEOchat.com called "Google Optimization Secrets from the Trenches". It discusses the future and current benefits of structuring your document to be more friendly to spiders. The principle is general and can be abstracted for H tag use as well.

 

Make your page not only easy to index but also easy to update presented in a structured manner. Just like you want to make it as easy as possible to for a customer to purchase from the website you should ensure it is as easy as possible to grab your data and keep in updated.

 

Think of those H tags as selling points of why your page should be presented to those that search using the search engine. Those H tags are your page's resume to the world! It has to be short, focused, and well able to be exanded on in the actual content.

 

As a fun example of this concept why don't you paste the content of one of your product pages and let's work on it as a community? If members see how it is done they could use that as a guide for doing their pages. What do you say? :)

 

Bobby

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For usability and accessibility (which is of far more importance than using hx tags for SEO), you should layout your page using just 1 h1 tag, then "cascade" through the page using h2, h3 etc as appropriate.

 

As an example, I might put the product name as a h1. Then layout the page using h2 tags for paragraph headings, h3 for sub paragraph headings etc.

 

Really, hx tags are of little help with SEO at this point (eg, pre MS3) as the rest of osCommerce does not carry semantically correct HTML anyway.

 

My opinion (and remember that opinions are like a-holes, everyone has one) is that using hx tags for SEO purposes is probably less than 1% useful to the vast majority of osC shops.

 

In other words, most Store Owners would be better advised to layout the page so that it is as semantically correct as possible, as usable as possible, as acccessible as possible and then let SEO come naturally as a by-product of that...

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Burt,

 

I definitely agree that H tags should not be used for SEO purposes but wanted to include those benefits.

 

IMO, the greatest benefit of H tags for a store owner is to have a standard method of organizing their page content. If they choose a standard "flow" for their pages it will have a consistent tone and add clarity for the customers. Of course, I wanted to expound on the fact it will add value to the never ending battle that is natural search engine traffic as well.

 

I think we both agree that proper use of H tags could only have positive benefit.

 

For the record, Burt is absolutely correct: sell to the customer first and let the natural benefit with search engines grow on its own. As with any other modifications anything you do (add or subtract) content from a page won't start appearing for several weeks or months.

 

Bobby

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Hey Chemo,

 

My pages are modified and might throw some people off the track so here is product_info.php from a standard osC file. This still includes the product name, description, etc. All the basics for SE's to pick up on.

 

<?php
/*
 $Id: product_info.php,v 1.97 2003/07/01 14:34:54 hpdl Exp $

 osCommerce, Open Source E-Commerce Solutions
 http://www.oscommerce.com

 Copyright (c) 2003 osCommerce

 Released under the GNU General Public License
*/

 require('includes/application_top.php');

 require(DIR_WS_LANGUAGES . $language . '/' . FILENAME_PRODUCT_INFO);

 $product_check_query = tep_db_query("select count(*) as total from " . TABLE_PRODUCTS . " p, " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_DESCRIPTION . " pd where p.products_status = '1' and p.products_id = '" . (int)$HTTP_GET_VARS['products_id'] . "' and pd.products_id = p.products_id and pd.language_id = '" . (int)$languages_id . "'");
 $product_check = tep_db_fetch_array($product_check_query);
?>
<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html <?php echo HTML_PARAMS; ?>>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=<?php echo CHARSET; ?>">
<title><?php echo TITLE; ?></title>
<base href="<?php echo (($request_type == 'SSL') ? HTTPS_SERVER : HTTP_SERVER) . DIR_WS_CATALOG; ?>">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css">
<script language="javascript"><!--
function popupWindow(url) {
 window.open(url,'popupWindow','toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,scrollbars=no,res
izable=yes,copyhistory=no,width=100,height=100,screenX=150,screenY=150,top=150,le
ft=150')
}
//--></script>
</head>
<body marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" topmargin="0" bottommargin="0" leftmargin="0" rightmargin="0">
<!-- header //-->
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'header.php'); ?>
<!-- header_eof //-->

<!-- body //-->
<table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="3" cellpadding="3">
 <tr>
   <td width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH; ?>" valign="top"><table border="0" width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH; ?>" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<!-- left_navigation //-->
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'column_left.php'); ?>
<!-- left_navigation_eof //-->
   </table></td>
<!-- body_text //-->
   <td width="100%" valign="top"><?php echo tep_draw_form('cart_quantity', tep_href_link(FILENAME_PRODUCT_INFO, tep_get_all_get_params(array('action')) . 'action=add_product')); ?><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<?php
 if ($product_check['total'] < 1) {
?>
     <tr>
       <td><?php new infoBox(array(array('text' => TEXT_PRODUCT_NOT_FOUND))); ?></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2" class="infoBox">
         <tr class="infoBoxContents">
           <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
             <tr>
               <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
               <td align="right"><?php echo '<a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_DEFAULT) . '">' . tep_image_button('button_continue.gif', IMAGE_BUTTON_CONTINUE) . '</a>'; ?></td>
               <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
             </tr>
           </table></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
<?php
 } else {
   $product_info_query = tep_db_query("select p.products_id, pd.products_name, pd.products_description, p.products_model, p.products_quantity, p.products_image, pd.products_url, p.products_price, p.products_tax_class_id, p.products_date_added, p.products_date_available, p.manufacturers_id from " . TABLE_PRODUCTS . " p, " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_DESCRIPTION . " pd where p.products_status = '1' and p.products_id = '" . (int)$HTTP_GET_VARS['products_id'] . "' and pd.products_id = p.products_id and pd.language_id = '" . (int)$languages_id . "'");
   $product_info = tep_db_fetch_array($product_info_query);

   tep_db_query("update " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_DESCRIPTION . " set products_viewed = products_viewed+1 where products_id = '" . (int)$HTTP_GET_VARS['products_id'] . "' and language_id = '" . (int)$languages_id . "'");

   if ($new_price = tep_get_products_special_price($product_info['products_id'])) {
     $products_price = '<s>' . $currencies->display_price($product_info['products_price'], tep_get_tax_rate($product_info['products_tax_class_id'])) . '</s> <span class="productSpecialPrice">' . $currencies->display_price($new_price, tep_get_tax_rate($product_info['products_tax_class_id'])) . '</span>';
   } else {
     $products_price = $currencies->display_price($product_info['products_price'], tep_get_tax_rate($product_info['products_tax_class_id']));
   }

   if (tep_not_null($product_info['products_model'])) {
     $products_name = $product_info['products_name'] . '<br><span class="smallText">[' . $product_info['products_model'] . ']</span>';
   } else {
     $products_name = $product_info['products_name'];
   }
?>
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
         <tr>
           <td class="pageHeading" valign="top"><?php echo $products_name; ?></td>
           <td class="pageHeading" align="right" valign="top"><?php echo $products_price; ?></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td class="main">
<?php
   if (tep_not_null($product_info['products_image'])) {
?>
         <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="right">
           <tr>
             <td align="center" class="smallText">
<script language="javascript"><!--
document.write('<?php echo '<a href="javascript:popupWindow(\\\'' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_POPUP_IMAGE, 'pID=' . $product_info['products_id']) . '\\\')">' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . $product_info['products_image'], addslashes($product_info['products_name']), SMALL_IMAGE_WIDTH, SMALL_IMAGE_HEIGHT, 'hspace="5" vspace="5"') . '<br>' . TEXT_CLICK_TO_ENLARGE . '</a>'; ?>');
//--></script>
<noscript>
<?php echo '<a href="' . tep_href_link(DIR_WS_IMAGES . $product_info['products_image']) . '" target="_blank">' . tep_image(DIR_WS_IMAGES . $product_info['products_image'], $product_info['products_name'], SMALL_IMAGE_WIDTH, SMALL_IMAGE_HEIGHT, 'hspace="5" vspace="5"') . '<br>' . TEXT_CLICK_TO_ENLARGE . '</a>'; ?>
</noscript>
             </td>
           </tr>
         </table>
<?php
   }
?>
         <p><?php echo stripslashes($product_info['products_description']); ?></p>
<?php
   $products_attributes_query = tep_db_query("select count(*) as total from " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_OPTIONS . " popt, " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_ATTRIBUTES . " patrib where patrib.products_id='" . (int)$HTTP_GET_VARS['products_id'] . "' and patrib.options_id = popt.products_options_id and popt.language_id = '" . (int)$languages_id . "'");
   $products_attributes = tep_db_fetch_array($products_attributes_query);
   if ($products_attributes['total'] > 0) {
?>
         <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
           <tr>
             <td class="main" colspan="2"><?php echo TEXT_PRODUCT_OPTIONS; ?></td>
           </tr>
<?php
     $products_options_name_query = tep_db_query("select distinct popt.products_options_id, popt.products_options_name from " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_OPTIONS . " popt, " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_ATTRIBUTES . " patrib where patrib.products_id='" . (int)$HTTP_GET_VARS['products_id'] . "' and patrib.options_id = popt.products_options_id and popt.language_id = '" . (int)$languages_id . "' order by popt.products_options_name");
     while ($products_options_name = tep_db_fetch_array($products_options_name_query)) {
       $products_options_array = array();
       $products_options_query = tep_db_query("select pov.products_options_values_id, pov.products_options_values_name, pa.options_values_price, pa.price_prefix from " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_ATTRIBUTES . " pa, " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_OPTIONS_VALUES . " pov where pa.products_id = '" . (int)$HTTP_GET_VARS['products_id'] . "' and pa.options_id = '" . (int)$products_options_name['products_options_id'] . "' and pa.options_values_id = pov.products_options_values_id and pov.language_id = '" . (int)$languages_id . "'");
       while ($products_options = tep_db_fetch_array($products_options_query)) {
         $products_options_array[] = array('id' => $products_options['products_options_values_id'], 'text' => $products_options['products_options_values_name']);
         if ($products_options['options_values_price'] != '0') {
           $products_options_array[sizeof($products_options_array)-1]['text'] .= ' (' . $products_options['price_prefix'] . $currencies->display_price($products_options['options_values_price'], tep_get_tax_rate($product_info['products_tax_class_id'])) .') ';
         }
       }

       if (isset($cart->contents[$HTTP_GET_VARS['products_id']]['attributes'][$products_options_name['products_options_id']])) {
         $selected_attribute = $cart->contents[$HTTP_GET_VARS['products_id']]['attributes'][$products_options_name['products_options_id']];
       } else {
         $selected_attribute = false;
       }
?>
           <tr>
             <td class="main"><?php echo $products_options_name['products_options_name'] . ':'; ?></td>
             <td class="main"><?php echo tep_draw_pull_down_menu('id[' . $products_options_name['products_options_id'] . ']', $products_options_array, $selected_attribute); ?></td>
           </tr>
<?php
     }
?>
         </table>
<?php
   }
?>
       </td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
<?php
   $reviews_query = tep_db_query("select count(*) as count from " . TABLE_REVIEWS . " where products_id = '" . (int)$HTTP_GET_VARS['products_id'] . "'");
   $reviews = tep_db_fetch_array($reviews_query);
   if ($reviews['count'] > 0) {
?>
     <tr>
       <td class="main"><?php echo TEXT_CURRENT_REVIEWS . ' ' . $reviews['count']; ?></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
<?php
   }

   if (tep_not_null($product_info['products_url'])) {
?>
     <tr>
       <td class="main"><?php echo sprintf(TEXT_MORE_INFORMATION, tep_href_link(FILENAME_REDIRECT, 'action=url&goto=' . urlencode($product_info['products_url']), 'NONSSL', true, false)); ?></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
<?php
   }

   if ($product_info['products_date_available'] > date('Y-m-d H:i:s')) {
?>
     <tr>
       <td align="center" class="smallText"><?php echo sprintf(TEXT_DATE_AVAILABLE, tep_date_long($product_info['products_date_available'])); ?></td>
     </tr>
<?php
   } else {
?>
     <tr>
       <td align="center" class="smallText"><?php echo sprintf(TEXT_DATE_ADDED, tep_date_long($product_info['products_date_added'])); ?></td>
     </tr>
<?php
   }
?>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2" class="infoBox">
         <tr class="infoBoxContents">
           <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
             <tr>
               <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
               <td class="main"><?php echo '<a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_PRODUCT_REVIEWS, tep_get_all_get_params()) . '">' . tep_image_button('button_reviews.gif', IMAGE_BUTTON_REVIEWS) . '</a>'; ?></td>
               <td class="main" align="right"><?php echo tep_draw_hidden_field('products_id', $product_info['products_id']) . tep_image_submit('button_in_cart.gif', IMAGE_BUTTON_IN_CART); ?></td>
               <td width="10"><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '10', '1'); ?></td>
             </tr>
           </table></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td>
<?php
   if ((USE_CACHE == 'true') && empty($SID)) {
     echo tep_cache_also_purchased(3600);
   } else {
     include(DIR_WS_MODULES . FILENAME_ALSO_PURCHASED_PRODUCTS);
   }
 }
?>
       </td>
     </tr>
   </table></form></td>
<!-- body_text_eof //-->
   <td width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH; ?>" valign="top"><table border="0" width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH; ?>" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<!-- right_navigation //-->
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'column_right.php'); ?>
<!-- right_navigation_eof //-->
   </table></td>
 </tr>
</table>
<!-- body_eof //-->

<!-- footer //-->
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'footer.php'); ?>
<!-- footer_eof //-->
<br>
</body>
</html>
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'application_bottom.php'); ?>

 

 

Another fun page might be gv_faq.php which is the page that I use for most of my content. And a page that a lot of osC site have.

 

<?php
/*
 $Id: gv_faq.php,v 1.2 2003/02/17 23:53:04 wilt Exp $

 osCommerce, Open Source E-Commerce Solutions
 http://www.oscommerce.com

 Copyright (c) 2002 - 2003 osCommerce

 Gift Voucher System v1.0
 Copyright (c) 2001, 2002 Ian C Wilson
 http://www.phesis.org

 Released under the GNU General Public License
*/

 require('includes/application_top.php');

 require(DIR_WS_LANGUAGES . $language . '/' . FILENAME_GV_FAQ);

 $breadcrumb->add(NAVBAR_TITLE); 
?>
<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html <?php echo HTML_PARAMS; ?>>
<head>
<?php
// BOF:Header Tag Controller v1.0
// Replaced by header_tags.php
if ( file_exists(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'header_tags.php') ) {
 require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'header_tags.php');
} else {
?> 
<title> <?php echo strip_tags($breadcrumb->trail('» ')); ?></title>
<?php
}
// EOF: Header Tag Controller v1.0
?>
<base href="<?php echo (getenv('HTTPS') == 'on' ? HTTPS_SERVER : HTTP_SERVER) . DIR_WS_CATALOG; ?>">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css">
</head>
<body marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" topmargin="0" bottommargin="0" leftmargin="0" rightmargin="0">
<!-- header //-->
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'header.php'); ?>
<!-- header_eof //-->

<!-- body //-->
<table width="760" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" background="images/mainbg.jpg">
 <tr>
<!-- body_text //-->
   <td width="100%" valign="top"><table border="0" width="95%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
     <tr>
       <td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
         <tr>
           <td class="pageHeading"><?php echo HEADING_TITLE; ?></td></tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><?php echo tep_draw_separator('pixel_trans.gif', '100%', '10'); ?></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
         <tr>
           <td class="main"><?php echo TEXT_INFORMATION; ?></td>
         </tr>
       </table></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td class="main"><b><?php echo SUB_HEADING_TITLE; ?></b></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
      <td class="main"><?php echo SUB_HEADING_TEXT; ?></td>
     </tr>
     <tr>
       <td align="right" class="main"><?php echo '<a href="' . tep_href_link(FILENAME_DEFAULT, '', 'NONSSL') . '">' . tep_image_button('button_continue.gif', IMAGE_BUTTON_CONTINUE) . '</a>'; ?></td>
     </tr>
   </table></td>
<!-- body_text_eof //-->
   <td width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH; ?>" valign="top"><table border="0" width="<?php echo BOX_WIDTH; ?>" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<!-- right_navigation //-->
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'column_right.php'); ?>
<!-- right_navigation_eof //-->
   </table></td>
 </tr>
</table>
<!-- body_eof //-->

<!-- footer //-->
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'footer.php'); ?>
<!-- footer_eof //-->
<br>
</body>
</html>
<?php require(DIR_WS_INCLUDES . 'application_bottom.php'); ?>

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