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I have a basic question about SEO and HTML design. Most homepage of websites use the code below:

<html>
    <head>
      <title>Website name</title>
    </head>

    <body>
        <h1>Website name</h1>
         ...some Slidebar That shows items list and artciles list...
    </body>
</html>

But for an internal page (like for an article), the code must be the following?

<html>
        <head>
          <title>Website name or Article page?</title>
        </head>

        <body>
            <h1>Article page?</h1>
             <p>text of article</p>
        </body>
    </html>

Which <title> and <h1> I must use? Article title or Website Name?

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2 Answers 2

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All HTML specifications define the title element as specifying a title for the page.

It’s still OK to include a site name in the title element content, if that content as a whole works as a title for the page.

For example, if a page contains a product catalog of the ACME corporation, then <title>Products of ACME</title> would be OK.

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For all internal pages of your site, you need to use a specific <title> tag to describe the content of the page. If you use the same <title> for more than one page, this is a SEO issue. The <h1> tag can also represent the title of the page, especially for an article (even if this is not really the case anymore with HTML5).

That's why in general, the homepage have the same <title> and <h1>: Website name and an article also have the same <title> and <h1>: Article page. Note this is a good practice to follow.

Moreover, think about Google will most probably use the <title> tag of your page to display the result in its index (see below). Therefore, you need to choose a specific one for each page.

enter image description here

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6
  • Even if this is not really the case anymore in HTML5? Did they throw that out? What changed?
    – leeand00
    Mar 11, 2014 at 18:34
  • 1
    In HTML5, <h1> can be used multiple times in a page. It's not the page title anymore but the title of a section of the page.
    – Zistoloen
    Mar 11, 2014 at 18:42
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    @Zistoloen There was never a restriction of a single h1 per page according to the specification, that was an arbitrary restriction made by SEO "experts". The only "restriction" regarding headling elements is that you should not skip a step (h1 -> h2 is ok but h1 -> h3 is not, see: w3.org/TR/html401/struct/global.html#h-7.5.5).
    – cimmanon
    Mar 11, 2014 at 19:31
  • @cimmanon: Ok. However my answer refers to the SEO facet.
    – Zistoloen
    Mar 11, 2014 at 19:35
  • 1
    Your mention of HTML5 implies that HTML4 had different rules regarding how many h1 elements are allowed to appear within an HTML document. Again, this was never true. The hn elements have always been intended for outlining purposes. The only difference is that in HTML5, the h1 element now changes its level in the outline based on its sectioning element ancestors (see: webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/…)
    – cimmanon
    Mar 11, 2014 at 19:39

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