An interesting use of h3 sub-headings

[fullbenefit]

Hello, this well-ranking post has caught my eye: https://www.capitol-casino.com/top-1...s-of-all-time/

They don't use any H2's in this post, only h3s. Also, all these sub-headings are shown as bullet points in their featured snippet.

My questions:

1. When is it okay to use h3s like that? Or did they get lucky by skipping the h2?
2. How does Google recognize these headings as a list? Is it because of wording/column, or does the fact that they use h3's, not h2's also matter?

Thanks

[Randy Ray]

My guess is that they just prefer the H3 formatting to the H2 formatting. It's okay to use H3 likes that if you want to, although if you're trying to comply with how H tags are meant to use, this isn't quite right. They're meant to be used as a way to outline the content, like so:

H1 tag -- Main topic and headline for the page
H2 tag - Subtopic of main topic
H3 tag - sub-subtopic of this h2
H3 tag - second sub-subtopic of this h2
H2 tag - second subtopic of main
H3 tag - sub-subtopic of this h2
H3 tag - second sub-subtopic of this h2

And so on...

If you're familiar with how to write an old-school outline, which I'm not sure they teach in high school anymore (I'm old, and I took high school english in the 1980s), it looks like this:

Main topic
I. Subtopic
A. Sub-subtopic
B. Sub-subtopic
II. Second Subtopic
A. Sub-subtopic
B. Sub-subtopic.

Etc.

I think that makes sense, and that's how the headings are intended to be used.

From a practical standpoint. I'm not sure that Google cares whether you use H2 or H3 tags. Enough people do it "wrong" that Google's algorithm doesn't penalize for it. My guess is that using h tags correctly provides context for Google, so there's upside, but I don't think it's a big deal.

Google can recognize this as a list because it IS a list, even though it's not using list attributes. Google's algorithm is sensitive to how a page is laid out.

Those are all just my opinions, but I hope they help.

Hello, this well-ranking post has caught my eye: https://www.capitol-casino.com/top-1...s-of-all-time/

They don't use any H2's in this post, only h3s. Also, all these sub-headings are shown as bullet points in their featured snippet.

My questions:

1. When is it okay to use h3s like that?
2. How does Google recognize these headings as a list? Is it because of wording/column, or does the fact that they use h3's, not h2's also matter?

Thanks

[fullbenefit]

Thanks for the reply. This is the first time I see a list that is not numbered and has no bullet points, but Google views it as one.
Why is that? Is it because of the column before the list, wording, and/or the use of h3s?

I don't see this often, so wondering what made it so clear to Google that it is a list?

[Randy Ray]

If it's clear to a human that it's a list, it's clear to Google. I see this all the time on results from my sites, by the way. It's not unusual. You can increase the probability of it being seen as a list by including numbers in the h tag, too.

Thanks for the reply. This is the first time I see a list that is not numbered and has no bullet points, but Google views it as one.
Why is that? Is it because of the column before the list, wording, and/or the use of h3s?

I don't see this often, so wondering what made it so clear to Google that it is a list?

[chaumi]

Re that page.

Yeah, an H1 and then just H3s. Schema nothing out of the ordinary. On page nothing out of the ordinary.

Links to the page - pretty much zero (although there could be hidden links you won't find)
But at a site level, they appear to have some strongish links
And they have good age at a site level
And they're a real business, so there could be other authority and trust related factors playing a part

As Randy says, they're not playing the logical, advised, accepted game.

My take is they're not ranking because of that structure, but despite it. And, at some point, that could come tumbling. It may just be that the overall authority level of the site (and maybe the content value of that page, or possibly some hidden links) is counteracting any shortfall in a page structure.

I'd say, don't do it as a matter of course. Structure 'properly'. But if you have a page that's lounging in the 60s or lower, and you could sensibly apply that sort of structure to it, there may be no real harm in trying a test (I'd say that with the current update stuff going down, making changes that wouldn't normally be advisable right now could lead you down a series of rabbit holes. Maybe hold off till we see how it all shakes out).

[fullbenefit]

I think they only missed an h2 and then they would be good to go?

[chaumi]

I think they only missed an h2 and then they would be good to go?

Yeah looks that way. Indeed it could just be an error on their part, and not intentional. If you check one or two other pages, that'll probably give the answer to that question.

[Randy Ray]

I think they only missed an h2 and then they would be good to go?

You know, if you're actually following the old "h tags represent an outline" mindset, you should only have one H1 tag, and never fewer than 2 H2 or H3 tags. The idea is that if you only have a single subtopic, you don't need to break it out with a subheader. They're meant to dive the content into subsections. If you only have a single subtopic, you wouldn't need a header tag to break it out.

But it doesn't matter to Google.

In that particular post, the appropriate use of h tags would be to use h2 tags for each player.

If you're determined to use h3 tags instead, it would be appropriate to use an h2 tag for the list and another h2 tag for a conclusion of some kind at the end of the page to wrap it all up.

But, seriously, Google doesn't care. It's just not a big deal at all. I've seen and worked on I don't know how many sites that used H3 tags instead of H2 tags just because they liked the formatting.

There's no SEO magic to be found here, sadly. If it were only that easy.

But, like everyone else, I could be wrong.