How important is <H1> tag?

[mikeb]

Very simply, our main page has long been at #1 on Google and Yahoo for a very nice serp of "bodybuilding supplements" which is what we sell. We have taken a bit of a hit lately (more to do with b/l's than anything I'm sure) and are around #4 now. For years, I've had a nice big <H1>Bodybuilding Supplements</H1> at the top of our main page. That tag, coupled with some boring blurb at the top of our page that also had "bodybuilding supplements" in it is what I believe helped us get to #1. But I'm wondering if the <h1> tag is helping anymore.

My problem is this: I am noticing way too many visitors leaving the site from the main page and only staying on the site for a matter of seconds. I'm looking at making some cosmetic changes and the <h1> tag and the text are probably going to go.

What are opinions on how badly, if at all, removing the h1 tag will hurt?
website is http://www.milleniumfitness.com

Basically, the adsense links, the h1 tag and all the text will be removed
Thanks for any input

[flaviussirop]

it's one of the things that count pretty much among the on-site content.. if I were you, I'd do my best not to remove it.. I don't know.. I would find some other formula..

[mikeb]

I know. I'm really torn here. I don't want to remove it. I'm going to play around with this somehow.

[dilligaf]

If it's the appearance why not just use css to make it appear as you wish?

[sonisoni]

Ya dilligaf is correct. create css and adjust the text size what ever u want and apply on H1 tag

[trepxe-oes]

put adsense at bottom or sides of the page... looks like your site has exclusively been made for adsense only...

[jlknauff]

Do not remove the <h1>. In fact, I would reccomend adding an <h2> and even an <h3> where appropriate. As D mentioned, use CSS to format it. You can check out the site in my sig (the "marketing tips" one) and "borrow" our CSS & HTML to see how it's done.

[mikeb]

Thanks for all the input. I am actually using css and will adjust it. I guess I'm more torn about leaving or removing the bit of text at the top more than the big <h1> tag. I'm just feeling that all the products need to be closer up to the top of the page for some reason.

[mikeb]

[QUOTE=trepxe-oes]put adsense at bottom or sides of the page... looks like your site has exclusively been made for adsense only...[/QUOTE]

Aaah yes...adsense. Here was my reasoning for putting it up there:
Unfortunately, many people who come to the site are leaving from the main page (not good). I figured, heck, if they're leaving anyway, I'll maybe see if they might click on the ads and at least toss some $$ my way. My first two months on adsense were VERY successful just from those clicks...I mean I was astounded at both the ctr and the money generated. That has since slowed down. I am probably going to put the adsense at the bottom now.

[exdeath]

About the header tags. Can I use more than one H1 on the same page? And what would happend if I use the H1 with the same text, but on diferent and unrelated pages?

[mikeb]

[QUOTE=exdeath]About the header tags. Can I use more than one H1 on the same page? And what would happend if I use the H1 with the same text, but on diferent and unrelated pages?[/QUOTE]

Not sure how many times you can use h1 without being seen as spammy but if you have all the properties of your h1 tag in your css file, any page that has <h1> will show the same styles. You can change this by using different h1 classes (hope my terminology is right here). So, if you have in your css h1.example
h1.example2
on individual pages you would put <h1 class="example"> or <h1 class="example2>
This way you can use different styles for the same h1.
Hope that makes sense and if not I'm sure someone can explain it better than me anyway.

[Paz]

[QUOTE=exdeath]About the header tags. Can I use more than one H1 on the same page? And what would happend if I use the H1 with the same text, but on diferent and unrelated pages?[/QUOTE]
Hi,

I would avoid putting more than one h1 tag on the page, rather use h2 and h3 even for content sub-paragraphs.

More important, the h1 (like the title and description) should be unique and relevant to each page, so I can't really see a situation whereby a site would benefit from having the same tag on every page!

Cheers,
Paz.

[exdeath]

Thanks Paz. I placed the H1 were on a text for which I already rank on top 10 anyway. It was just to see if I could rank for those individual Keywords.
I just replaced the h1 for h2.

[Paz]

[QUOTE=exdeath]Thanks Paz. I placed the H1 were on a text for which I already rank on top 10 anyway. It was just to see if I could rank for those individual Keywords.
I just replaced the h1 for h2.[/QUOTE]
LOL... well I said I would avoid it, but I always think you should avoid site changes when a site is ranking well. Anyway, it's not a major change, like a new navigational structure for example, so let's see what happens. It's possible you could drop for a couple of weeks though; don't panic!

Cheers,
Paz.

[kotseo]

any one can suggest me how many key phrases can be put under H1 tag??

kotseo

[jlknauff]

<h1>Main keyword phrase</h1>

<p>Text about main keyoword phrase</p>

<h2>Stemming from main keyword phrase</h2>

<p>Text about that</p>

<h3>More stemming from main keyword phrase</h3>

<p>Text about that</p>