On Saturday we discussed blog post titles. Today, we’ll talk about something nearly equally important - subheads.
Why are subheadings important in blog posts? Two reasons:
- The break up the text in longer posts to make the blog post more readable
- Subheads with h2 or h3 tags also provide extraordinary SEO benefits
That’s a powerful combination of benefits. Don’t you think?
Critiquing The Blog’s Subheads
Take a look at the CD and DVD Publishing blog post titled “A Surefire Way To Get In Good With Your Boss & Get A Raise With CD Presentations.” See the subheads? See how they provide an easy reference for the sections of the blog? Readers know precisely what each section of the blog post is about - or should.
The top half of this blog is split up into three sections, delineated by the titles of the section heads:
- Life Is Costly!
- How To Get That Raise
- You Have To Be More To Get More
Do these subheads really explain what the sections are about? Do they entice the reader to read those sections? Let’s examine:
What Your Subhead’s Job Really Is
If you think about each of your subheads as a miniature title on your blog then it’s real easy to see what they’re there for. They serve the same purpose as your blog title, only they’re titles for sections instead of the entire blog post. It is like the difference between the CEO of your company and a division manager. They’re both leaders, but each one maintains a more prominent position over the blog.
You could just as well call the subhead a subtitle. It matters little what you call it. But it does matter how you use it, and to use your subhead effectively, you must ensure that it provides your readers a proper benefit. Let’s review the three aspects of an effective blog post or section title:
- Length
- Structure
- Keyword Positioning
Remember, length and structure are intertwined. They go hand in hand. Each blog section head must not be too long and should spark some interest in your readers to read that section. It’s great that the writer of this blog broke up the sections for easy readability - the fourth leg on the blog subhead stool - but you can’t forget the other three legs. Write a blog subhead that is short, sparks curiosity in the reader to get them to read that blog section, and uses your important keyword. If you do those three things you’ll have a good blog subhead.
Blog Subhead Keyword Position
It is very important that you put your keyword in your blog subheads. This is for SEO purposes. Search engines see those subheads as vitally important elements on your blog page. They stand out and tell the search engines, as well as the human readers, what that section of the blog is about. Don’t leave that part out. It is too important to miss.
So where should your keyword go? Where would it go in the blog post title? Near the front, right? So place your keywords as close to the front of your blog subheads as you can without breaking the other rules of blog subhead writing. How could we rewrite these three subheads to be more effective for the CD and DVD Publishing blog? Let’s look:
- Life is Less Costly With CD Presentations
- How A CD Presentation Can Get You A Raise
- Be More, Get More: CD Presentations Increase Your Marketability
Rewriting these subheads won’t improve the content under the sections, but this exercise does show that you can write your blog subheads with keywords in mind that provide your readers with a promise of a benefit. They’re not too long, they spark an interest, and they use your important keywords.
Tags Are Important Too
What’s a tag?
The easiest way to explain what a tag is is to show you. Take a look at your local newspaper. See how the big headlines are at the top? The smaller headlines at the bottom? That’s the way you should structure your blog as well.
Your blog title is the main headline on the page. Above the fold. Gets people to read your blog.
The blog subheads allow your readers to scan your blog post for interesting and relevant information. If they see something they like they will stop and read the entire section. They also provide your readers - and search engine spiders - with a way to tell what your blog post in general, and each blog section, is about as well as the importance of each piece of the blog pie.
The tag determines the size of your subhead. That is, it is the html code that tells web browsers how to read your blog subhead. It will appear in your reader’s browser the way that you tell the browser to display it. There are six primary tag sizes
- h1
- h2
- h3
- h4
- h5
- h6
Blog post titles generally appear as h1 tags. Blog post subheads generally appear as h2 and h3 tags. H4 tags are usually the size of normal web page content. Here are a few examples for you to see:
This is an example of an h1 tag
This is an h2 tag
h3 tag
h4
h5 is smaller
h6 is smaller still
So How Do You Create Blog Subhead Tags?
When you want to change the size of your blog text you place the proper tag in front of and behind that section, sentence, paragraph, or subhead and your reader’s browser will read that part of your blog post the proper way. For instance, type the phrase
Make A CD Presentation, Get A Raise
Now make it a subhead with an h3 tag by inserting h3 with a < symbol before it and a > symbol behind it in front of the phrase. Behind the phrase, insert the same syntax but insert a / symbol between the < and the h. It will look like this:
Make A CD Presentation, Get A Raise
Want it bigger? Change the 3 to a 2 in the tag and you’ll have a bigger blog subhead:
Make A CD Presentation, Get A Raise
Well, there’s the low down on blog subheads. Simple, right? Come back tomorrow and we’ll talk about the importance of keyword density in your blog post content. Until then, happy blogging.
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