H1 should be between 20-70 characters (yes, letters!) and should incorporate multiple keywords. There should only ever be one on page, and it should never be the exact same as your Page Title. More on Page Titles in a moment.
Use H2 to Improve Readability for Users
(While Sneaking In Keywords)
H2 should also be between 20-70 characters, and while it would be nice to include valuable keywords, the most important factor is helping your users read through content. You can use as many H2’s as the page contents calls for! They should be unique from each other, and unique from the H1 on page.
Real Talk: Never Keyword Stuff. I don’t even have to define it, you know exactly what I mean. Google rewards content that is a good experience for Users. It does no good to try and “trick” the algorithm, and Google’s bots can spot those shenanigans from a mile off.
H3, H4, H5, are up for grabs.
I don’t care how you use them, and neither does Google.
Have fun!
Tips and Tricks for the Body of your Content.
If you want to ‘own’ a topic in search, make sure you have at least 1,000 words on the page! In addition to strategically utilizing H1, H2, Page Title (we’re still getting there…), SEO code (oh yeah, we’ll tackle that too), and various attributes of images, be sure to intersperse relevant keywords throughout the body copy.
Google can also “see” bold faced text and italics; where appropriate, use these to emphasize key terms.
Quotes are cool too.
– Jaime Lee
And oh, man, be sure to use anchor text that links to external websites! If it’s in your users’ best interest to feast their eyes on an outside source, be generous and link to it. Use relevant keywords within the anchor text for the best results. Never mislead your users; do good by them and Google will do good by you.
Rich Content Rewards. And is Rewarded In Turn.
Research indicates that users are highly likely to scan image captions in a long document to glean information from the page.
Well, Neil Paten figured this out somehow. I have no idea how, and I’m not about to read the article when I can just scan the images. But he says something like users are 300% more likely to read your captions than your content.
Ouch.
Anyway, everyone loves rich content, it soothes the eye and stimulates the brain. Incorporate images when you can.