Ann Smarty

Div ID=”Header” Different SEO Tactics

August 29th, 2008 by Ann Smarty | 19 Comments

It is quite natural a header div is one of the most important on-page elements and thus it is in constant focus of SEOs’ attention:

  • it is a sitewide element - it “interlinks” / unites all site subpages (and thus is one of the most important components of your site internal architecture);
  • it is the most prominent part of the site - it is usually located at the top of the page source code (and hence is a good place for your keywords).

Nonetheless not everything is that easy - while having a great SEO potential, a header may cause some serious problems as well:

  • an over-optimized header may cause incorrect rankings (e.g. when home page is ranked higher than a more relevant sub page for example);
  • an over-optimized header may lead to penalties (e.g. many of us saw penalties caused by internal anchor text over-optimization).


Most often questions related to header div SEO include:

  • is it wiser to use a text link or a (linked) image banner?
  • what’s preferable: to use keywords or a brand name as an image alternative text or link anchor text?
  • should “home” link be “nofollowed”?

Here is how most prominent bloggers handle the header SEO:

Source Header div type Details Overall tactic
SEL head Linked banner Image name: header-logo; alternative text: Search Engine Land!; title: Search Engine Land Image banner (alt text cites exactly what image says)
blogstorm-head Linked banner Image name: logo; alternative text: Search engine optimization from Blogstorm; title: none Image banner (with a descriptive alt text) + “home” link using “nofollow”
10e20 header Linked banner Image name: logo; alternative text: none; title: none Image banner with no alt text + “Home” text link
stephanspencer head Text link H3-tagged text link; anchor text: Stephan Spencer’s Scatterings Text link (anchor text citing the blog name)
hamletbatista header Text link anchor text: Home Text link (anchor text non-descriptive)

So as far as you can see, there is no definitive answers. My own take on the header optimization is as follows:

  • don’t have it linked to itself;
  • don’t use “nofollow” attribute for it (while “first-link-is-the-only-that-counts” theory is still questionable, you better stay on the safe side);
  • it’s best not to over-optimize the header with keywords, instead, use your brand name - it’s even better if your main keyword is included in your brand/ domain name (e.g. SEO book, SEO moz).
  • (this needs more testing) try CSS positioning the entire header div after the main content block - thus you will “show” a search crawler each page unique element first and give each page specific keywords more prominence (avoid keyword cannibalization)




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