proper page setup using doctype, <h1>,<p>, etc..what is necessary?

[spewn]

i've built a decent looking site. i've been on other sites that rank well and see that most (not all) have <h1>, most declare the doctype, etc...

so, how important is/are the <h1> header tags (1-6)? should i definitely have these in there, or at least the h1? is that what the search engines look for?

any help?

- g

 

[ChrisHirst]

Nothing is really necessary, or more important than other HTML markup. The correct use of the elements is.
The SEs are now very good at analysing the overall structure of the page rather than picking an element and giving more weight to that one.

Be careful of looking at sites and then mixing up "cause and effect"

Build your site using correct semantic markup and with users in mind, after all SE crawlers/indexers are users with a low spec text only browser.


Chris.

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