Is it best practice to use same text in browser <title> and in <H1>?

Question

Is it best to use whatever we want to use in <h1> Should be same in <title>?

Is it good for SEO, Accessibility, Usability, in any terms?

<title>How to decide What should be chosen to make heading bold &lt;strong&gt; or &lt;h3/h4/h5&gt;? - Stack Overflow</title>

<h1>How to decide What should be chosen to make heading bold &lt;strong&gt; or &lt;h3/h4/h5&gt;?</h1>

SO uses this thing.

But i'm making one and using like this

Is this also ok or not good?

My question is related if we <title> are generating dynamically but we can decide what should be used.

Answer 1

You only have one title per HTML page while you can have more than one h1. Also title is part of the head so it has a more special role. Additionally from a UI perpective, the title value typically appears in the title bar of the window (or the tab). On the other hand title may be more limited in the sense you cannot include a link in it.

Based on that, I would say it's not best practice to use the same value for h1 and title unless you have only one h1 that is your title...

I'm not an HTML guru, just my 2 cents.

Answer 2

I actually often use slightly different wording in <h1> and <title>, so as to cover more search keywords. Also, the <title> sometimes must be optimized to enable easy browsing of bookmarks and easy scanning of open browser tabs, while the <h1> should be optimized for actually reading the page.

Answer 3

In practice many web sites use one h1 which serves as the visible title of the page for the users. It often makes sense to use the same text in the title tag. However, for SEO purpose, you may want to have a different, keyword targeted title tag.

The title tag is thought to figure very high as an SEO ranking factor and therefore much thought should be put into it.

The CMS software I have been building and offering to clients has an optional 'SEO title' form field for pages and posts so that the client have the option to enter a different text that will go in the title tag. If not used the default title is used both for the title tag and the main h1 of the page.

Answer 4

Don't think about the formatting for a second and imagine that the document you're writing is a Word document; you have a page title and typically a heading. That's the kind of style you should go with. These best practices are often lies spread by people that happen to be good-writers about SEO that often be mistaken as solid fact from the mouths of Google. I'd say at least 90% of what many would call SEO fact is completely wrong and may have worked five years ago but isn't a ranking factor any more.

These are only indicators as to what your content is about and in the grand scheme of things isn't going to wildly change anything about your website on Google. People put far too much relevance on getting these things just right when on any content-specific website the content should do the talking for itself.

Ultimately you cannot game Google because they'll always be two steps ahead so do what makes sense to your users. Use the page title as <h1> but if the text is also relevant to <title> then feel free to use it.

EDIT: Does anyone care to say why I've been downvoted when everything I've said is correct? If you believe it isn't then prove it.

Answer 5

This is how I see it:

The <title> is for the user to see the page title in search engines and the OS (task bar, title bar, bookmarks).

The <h1> is for user the see the page title in the content.

I format mine like this:

<title>Page Title: Website Name</title>
<h1>Page Title</h1>

That way:

• Keywords are reinforced.
• The user sees the title on page, in search engines, and in the OS.
• The user sees what website the page came from.
• Limited 'duplicate' page title penalty by search engines. That's why the website name is at the end.

[EDIT]

After reading a few comments I wanted to note that I'll often put my tags in the "wrong" order in code. To inform the search engine what's more important. I've heard this is "bad" but I can't verify that.

If I have a site layout like:

Animals > Dogs > Breeds > Labrador Retriever

<title>Labrador Retriever: The Animal Site</title>
...
<h6>Dog Breeds</h6>
...
<h1>Labrador Retriever</h1>

I've told the search engine that the page is about Labrador Retrievers but that there is a minor importance to Dog Breeds...but it's still important.