Title and H1 Tag Question

[TravG]

So I recently launched a new site www.onlineunitedstatescasinos.com Obviously it is a EMD site and for the homepage I used the same text for the title and H1 tag.

Once I ran it through an SEO opimizer it suggested not to have them the same. If they are different and I want "Online United States Casinos" as the most important phrase do you suggest using that phrase as the title or H1 tag? I am assuming the title tag but just wanted to make sure.

[seoexpert]

H1 and Titles are different role in search engine. H1 is the most important which can be never duplicate and not looking spammy.

[lowrisk]

Can't you have a variation of your keywords in your title, and the main keyword as H1? I'd definitely agree H1 was more important for SEO.

[thebookiesoffers]

H1 is the most important

no it isn't

[thebookiesoffers]

So I recently launched a new site www.onlineunitedstatescasinos.com Obviously it is a EMD site and for the homepage I used the same text for the title and H1 tag.

Once I ran it through an SEO opimizer it suggested not to have them the same. If they are different and I want "Online United States Casinos" as the most important phrase do you suggest using that phrase as the title or H1 tag? I am assuming the title tag but just wanted to make sure.

put the main one in your title (along with other keywords) and then rewrite your H1 to include it but being more descriptive with other keywords in it, on top of my head something like 'Guide to Online United States Casinos and Bonus reviews'

obviously you will have a better idea of what is needed but you should get the idea

[edgarf76]

if you are using a wordpress platform there is a plugin that is free called seo ninja. It gives you a score for each blog post and a score for the site as well. The H1 and Title are different, put your keyword in both in my opinion. There also is a wp plugin platnum seo which is good, it does not go as in depth as seo ninja as far as on page opt but it is good.

I read your source code, there doesnt look like much on page opt on there. Are using a program like dreamweaver to make your site? I do not see any headers in there and your inner pages do not have much on page opt. I would check out a video tuturial of seo ninja even if you dont use it so you understand the how to use, bold, italic, underline, headers, title, pictures, alt text in pictures and a whole host of other things. Good luck with your site.

[TravG]

For that site I used Microsoft Expression Web. There is on page opt, I didnt check the source code and there was a goofy seeting in the program that "optimized" the white space. I removed that setting so you can see the code a lot better now. I dont use bold and underline for SEO. I have read that because so many people have used it incorrectly it has very little effect on SEO so I chose to just keep the page clean instead.

Thanks for everyones feedback.

[edgarf76]

i checked out the source code for on page opt, its good. the layout is nice as well.

[casinopowerguide]

H1 and titles should be a little different, otherwise it can run the risk of looking spammy. It can be a bit difficult especially when doing reviews etc but in theory you can have:
<title>X casino review - 50 free chips</title>
...
<h1>Review of X casino</h1>

And the same applies for other sections as long as it looks "natural"

[alexcruncha]

I watched a video that had Matt Cutts giving a presentation and he said it is better to use slight different variations of keywords on H1 and Title tags so that you actually target more than one exact match keyword... anyway putting the stats of SEO to one side I have found that a Title that sounds a little crazy like "The Most Awesome US Casinos That You Cant Miss!!!" actually gets a much better click through rate than something very generic like "The Best US Casinos" as it is what searchers first see. There are probably 100 sites that use the generic example above but there are probably zero using the 'crazy' example.

[AceOdds]

I would put "Online United States Casinos" at the beginning of the title followed by a brief description of the website or tag line. Keeping the main phase near the beginning can help result page click through rate (assuming these are the keywords people are using) and I think google gives extra weight to keywords that appear near the beginning of the title.

The contents of the h1 should depend on how your page is layed out. If the page already contains these words in a logo or banner they don't need to be repeated again in the h1. A variation on the phase, as others have suggested would be your best bet.

[universal4]

Thanks for the recommendation on the seo ninja, I usually use all-in-one so I will take the time to look at the other.

Good point Alexcruncha, I have noticed that somewhat also, but not quite to the degree you mentioned, but I will keep this in mind while researching from now on.

Great discussion everyone.

Rick
Universal4

[Fortune Palace]

I tend to think in terms of the Title having to grab attention in the SERPS and the H1 grabbing attention on the page.

It's not a hard and fast rule, but it certainly fits in with what Alexcruncha says.

[casinorecommender]

The more natural look you have n the site the most Google and other search engines rank you. Got it mate ? Do not copy exactly the same but use synonym and accronym words as well...