I have to confess, I was an H6 virgin. I’m currently with the H1, but I’ve been around many H2 tags and dabbled with the H3. Sometimes the H4 and I once had a fling with the H5. But I never had the H6. If you’re thinking “what the hell is he talking about?” or concerned about my state of mind, then please don’t because my potential crisis will hopefully not be in the form of a blog. What I’m actually talking about is the HTML heading structure of your website, and please don’t go anywhere else because this is actually… mildly interesting. Headings and subheadings are incredibly important for your website. Not just for your content, but also for SEO. This content that this is sitting in now is below the H1, which can be seen as the introduction to what the content is about. Always insert your keyword(s) that you’re trying to rank for in both the title and the H1 tag e.g. my target keyword for this blog would be – “H6”. The H1 tag and title are usually the same, but this doesn’t have be the case. If they are the same, you must make sure your page title isn’t too long as it will not be seen in the SERP. And now I’ll tell my tale.

So when did you use the H6 tag?

Not so fast. We’ll get there. There’s a long way to go before the aforementioned tag so let’s take a look at the subheadings. This is where you’ll want to divide your content into chunks with clear headings that tell the user what that bulk of content is about. I’ve cheated here a little with the title of this H2 tag (which this content is sitting in) as I’m not going to tell you about the H6 tag yet. I’m trying to build suspense. I hope you appreciate it. Don’t think you’re stuck and beholden to the structure. Content should come first with the headings, complimenting what you’re writing about. It would be good to think of H2 tags as chapters of a book. They should be used accordingly to split out content into sections. Therefore, you can use multiple H2 tags and should apply these as the main subheadings.

Can we just go straight to the H6 tag?

No, you can’t. Heading structures follow a lineage, meaning one tag can’t exist without the preceding tags number. For example, you can’t use the H4 tag if you haven’t used the H3 tag. This is an extremely important rule and can be confusing to both user and bots. It’s law of the web and has been defined by the grand webmaster of the internet.

So why are there so many tags?

Six heading elements may seem slightly extreme, especially since we’re only sitting in the H4. Think of the heading structure as the spine of your content, organising it into a logical rigid hierarchy. So, all your important stuff should be in the top positions (H1-H3). The bottom echelons (H4-H6) should be where you put your content that only exists to back up the previous headings – and should be the least important. Sorry if I hurt your feelings H4.

Which tag are we in now then?

It’s a H5, we’re crossing into the singularity and reaching unknown territory. Let’s be honest, for most of us we’re never going to need to get this far. But it could come in handy if for example you were an e-commerce site and had quite in-depth product specification that you wanted to deep dive into more detail.