HTML headings are an important website component for catching the user's eye. Moreover, they allow you to present the structure of your content on the page to users:

Some recommendations for optimizing your headers:

Have only one <h1> heading on the page.

The <h1> tag defines the most important heading; therefore, it should be used for the page title and placed at the top of the page content. Generally, search engines give the <h1> tag more weight than other headers, so you will improve your website search engine ranking in the case of correct using the <h1> tag. You should consider the <h1> tag as a “second” <title> tag that sends another relevancy signal to Google.

Include the most important keywords to your <h1> tag.

Search engine spiders pay attention to words that are used in the <h1> tag. Keywords in your h1 header tag will help Google and other search engines to understand your website better and to find more relevant content on your website for users’ search queries.

Avoid stuffing your <h1> header tag with keywords.

Use <h2> tag for major headings and <h3> for major sub-headings.

Each header tag indicates the relative importance of the corresponding text section on the page. The most important for SEO are <h1>, <h2>, and <h3> header tags. Using <h2> tag for major headings and <h3> tag for major sub-headings will not only help to improve your website ranking but to better organize and design your site. As a result, visitors will be able quickly to find what they are looking for on your pages.

Place keywords in your <h2>-<h6> header tags.

Despite the fact that <h2>-<h6> header tags do not have such weight as <h1> tag has, they are locations to place your keywords. Search engines use header tags to identify more important words on the page from the content. Search engine spiders can check the keyword consistency between the header tags and other page content. Moreover, keywords in headings help users to find the content they are interested in on your page faster. Keywords in your header tags are an additional weak relevancy signal.

Avoid stuffing your header tags with keywords.

Have unique header tags throughout your website.

Each page needs to have its unique set of header tags. If you use, for example, the same <h1> header tag for two pages, Google might perceive one of those pages as redundant and not count it. So, do not use the duplicated content in your header tags across your website.

Avoid: 

• having the same header tags for different pages 
• using the same content for both page title tag and page <h1> tag

Use header tags for organizing content on your pages.

Header tags are used in the page code for categorization, not for cosmetics purposes.

Avoid using header tags only for styling text and not presenting the content structure

Create readable and grammatically correct content for your header tags.

It is import your header tags are readable and grammatically correct.

Avoid grammatical mistakes in your header tags.

Use headings sparingly across the page.

Too many headings on the page can make it hard for users to determine where one topic ends and another begins.

Avoid: 

• excessively using header tags throughout the page
• putting all of the page text into a header tag

Use header tags appropriately.

Think carefully about the main points and sub-points of the content on your page. Put these points into header tags.

Avoid:

• placing text in header tags would not be helpful in defining the structure of the page
• erratically moving from one header tag size to another. Your headings should help your users to navigate your page.
• use header tags as hidden text.

Headings are not the primary factor that Google uses to rank a website. However, appropriately used header tags in conjunction with other SEO techniques help to improve the website search engine ranking for specific keywords.

References:

1. “HTML <h1> to <h6> Tags” w3schools.com. 1999-2015. 30 October 2015. < http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_hn.asp >

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