<h1> or <th> better for SEO?

[Peter K. Lam]

I'm working on some pages and found a table with several <th> tags (which are table header tags used for tables) and wanted to find out if these are beneficial for SEO. I know the the <h1>, <h2>, etc. tags are good for SEO. My plan is to replace the <th> with <h2> or <h3> because I know spiders put those into consideration for SEO for sure. Have anyone you looked into <th> and the possible effects on SEO? Thanks!

[tstolber]

H1, H2, H3 etc is the correct semantic mark up for a document for section headings. A table is a different entity. H - Heading tags are definitely much better for SEO.

Note - there is no reason why the text in a <th> can't be inside an H1, H2 or H3 tag - and if it is actually structured that the th is a page heading - then it is appropriate to make the text H1 or another heading tag.

Many people confuse the use of H1 as by default it is a very large bold font and doesn't usually fit with most pages. It doesn't have to be. Your paragraph text could look like your heading text and vice versa if you style it to be that way.

The correct semantic mark up should be used and then style appropriately. This is how the HTML and CSS standards work together. Also, read up on HTML5 as it allows for specific header, content, footer, navigation, figure and citation mark up sections.

[Peter K. Lam]

Good that I'm on the same page about the heading tags being better for SEO. So do you mean that the code should be <th><h2>SUBTITLE</h2></th> or should the <th> be removed altogether? I have a book on HTML 5 so I'll read up on it some more to find out about this.

[tstolber]

If your design requires tables and the TH section then its OK to keep it. IT probably won't do anything positive or negative for you.

A nicely done HTML 5 site will just be much sweeter and more forward and cross browser compatible.

[Peter K. Lam]

Yea. There are tables on my site. We're working towards getting rid of them in favor of div. Thanks for the feedback!

[ggiwebsinfo]

I'm working on some pages and found a table with several <th> tags (which are table header tags used for tables) and wanted to find out if these are beneficial for SEO. I know the the <h1>, <h2>, etc. tags are good for SEO. My plan is to replace the <th> with <h2> or <h3> because I know spiders put those into consideration for SEO for sure. Have anyone you looked into <th> and the possible effects on SEO? Thanks!

Ya...You think absolutely right because <h1> and <h2> tags are too good for seo prospective....You should use these tags alternative for <th> tags....

[luqmaankhaan598]

yes it does effect on SEO... <h1> <h2> are more value in content than <th>... as in news paper ppl dont read complete paper but detail of some and headings...

[MosherCharles]

HI ! I think that <h1> is better than <th>.

headings play a huge role into the accessibility of your website. Screen readers are looking for H1 to H6 tag to rapidly “jump” blind people within the section of a page. They can “skim” a page by pressing the “H” key to jump/hear from one heading to another.

[david0019]

i go for <h1> and <h2>

[geneoliver]

you can visit at w3school website and <h1> or <h2> tags are better than <th>.<th> means Table data heading only.

[fariadali]

The th tag represents the table header html tag used within a table. There are a few points I would like to highlight before going into the details. Firstly, the use of a table to design websites has now become outdated and people prefer to design their websites using DIVs which clearly means that th tags is irrelevant with nonexistent tables. Secondly, th tags are not used for SEO purposes. H1, H2 and H3 tags are commonly used for SEO purposes. The H1 tag can only be used once in a website whereas the H2 and H3 tags can be used as much as required. You may also make use of other heading tags.

[siddharthaSing]

Basically <th> tag is represent the table heading in html. its use for designing the website.for seo purpose h1, h2, h3 is always use. h1 is use for main heading of your website ex-Welcome to our company..h2, h3 is use for sub heading in your website for your requirement.