Google Says Heading Elements (Tags) Order Does Not Matter anymore!

As of today, people knew that around 80% of the first-page results over Google makes use of an H1 tag. But John Mueller of Google brought out this updated factor that the specified order of the heading tags on the web pages are no longer important for ranking over Google. John Mueller even discussed it during a webmaster hangout over YouTube.

https://neilpatel.com/blog/h1-tag/

What Is the Main Agenda of Ignoring the Order of Heading Tags?

John Mueller said that the order of the heading tags does not really matter as they only use it for understanding the base or context of the content on the page. The heading tag helps them gain a little more insight into the webpage content. But for this subtle need, there is no necessity of following a strict order of giving tags.

John Mueller gave a clear verdict on it and also explained that many contents come up with multiple H1 tags, and some come with a diverse order just for the sake of meeting the need of the template. It is fine but it does not matter much when it comes to ranking over Google.

Earlier, this rule was strictly imposed for adding keywords to the heading or h1 tag. This was mandatory during the 2000s, when the keyword in the H1 tags was deciding the competitiveness of the website.

Does this mean websites will stop using Header Tags?

John Mueller was also asked about how far is using multiple header tags correct. According to him, H1s could be used without any count restrictions. Moreover, he also added that the web pages could also omit using H1 tags as it does not matter for the ranking. He gives a positive hope to the publishers that the site is going to rank the way it is supposed to with or without the H1 tags.

To explain better, he says that adding an H1 tag works as key information or an outline that gives brief information about the content of the page. It can be used as a macro overview but not mandatorily. But if people want their web pages to communicate with the consumers more, then the heading strategy is quite feasible.

There is no compulsion for it, as John Mueller says that there are many SEO tools that object you about not having H1 tags or multiple H1 tags. But Google does not think of it as a critical issue anymore. He adds that there are many web pages over Google that do not have header tags or are used only for styling needs. They are getting good ranks as well without much hassles as Google is not demanding H1 tags or the tags in order to rank the websites or webpages.

This declaration by John Mueller will definitely give some hope to the SEO professionals and the website owners and let them get creative with their page and get an impressive ranking without hampering the template of the page.