Heading Analysis: Online Shops
Headings tags are important in relation to content optimization. The H1-6 tags divide textual content into document sections. The higher the number the lower in the document tree the section is and some say the lesser the importance as well. Either way it is important to have at least one heading tag in place for any Web page.
The first data table shows breakdown of the character length of the heading tag for two samples of shopping sites, one in prominent positions within search results with major search engines while the other is retrieved from link lists of shopping Web sources. The third column shows the average of the two.
| Heading Analysis: Element Content Length | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Observed Element | General Merchandise | General Merchandise SE | Average |
| H1 Real Content Length | 65.8 | 67.2 | 66.5 |
| H2 Real Content Length | 72.6 | 70.2 | 71.5 |
| H3 Real Content Length | 42.7 | 31.3 | 37.0 |
| H4 Real Content Length | 52.3 | 25.7 | 39.0 |
| H5 Real Content Length | 56.5 | 70.1 | 63.3 |
| H6 Real Content Length | 84.0 | 47.2 | 65.6 |
The two samples are very similar with the main difference in H4-6 tags with H4 and H6 shorter for sites in prominent search engine positions.
| Heading Analysis: Location within Web Document | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Observed Element | General Merchandise | General Merchandise SE | Average |
| H1 Page Location | 13624.0 | 16318.8 | 14971.4 |
| H2 Page Location | 17938.8 | 23111.1 | 20525.0 |
| H3 Page Location | 17565.7 | 25396.2 | 21481.0 |
| H4 Page Location | 12923.1 | 30749.9 | 21836.5 |
| H5 Page Location | 23756.0 | 36828.9 | 30292.5 |
| H6 Page Location | 7026.7 | 40479.8 | 23753.3 |
| HTML Document Length | 32578.1 | 40206.6 | 36392.4 |
The second data table and chart shows the average location of the H1-6 tags for the same samples. The table and chart shows that the location of the H1-6 tags on sites in prominent search engine positions are in accordance with the heading tag number. Therefore, the location and the level of the H1-6 tags seem to matter according to this data. If you are an online shop owner looking for ways to improve search engine performance for you site then it might be wise to keep the H1-6 tags in sync with the Web pages' content.
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