h1 and changing font effect the h1?

[ebayguy]

If I were to change the font size of an h1
tag will this kill the Seo value of the tag?

<h1><font size=4>Easy way to make money</h1></font>

Will the search engines still see this as <h1> ?

Thanks

[sarahk]

Yes they would but you are lessening the effect by having unnecessary html in there.

I'd rather see <style>h1 {font-size: 14px;}</style> up in your header section and let that control how the h1 tags look.

For more info google CSS and stylesheets.

[John Scott]

I would change the font size via css and then exclude robots from the css file.

[cimmeron]

define your h1 tag in external css and exclude, like John said.

h1 {
font-size: 16px;
font-weight: bold;
color: #495E7D;
}

as an example

[sixty6]

Originally Posted by ebayguy

If I were to change the font size of an h1
tag will this kill the Seo value of the tag?

<h1><font size=4>Easy way to make money</h1></font>

Will the search engines still see this as <h1> ?

Thanks

hehe, the header tag itself will hurt the value...

[irka]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

I would change the font size via css and then exclude robots from the css file.

There is a man moving in the background of your avatar

But about the CSS and the robots exclusion, why so ? I mean, Robots really check css files? Is there any punishments if something is wrong with the CSS?
Uch....

[JamieJelly]

My H1 tag is display:hidden and replaced with an image. That way if the CSS fails to load my visitors still get a website title. This doesn't cause any problems with the search engines.

[Dom]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

I would change the font size via css and then exclude robots from the css file.

Why exclude robots from the css?

[John Scott]

If you are reducing the size, excluding robots from the css prevents the search engines from seeing the changes being made.

[Dom]

But using non-standard header sizes is a completely legitimate use of CSS. The CSS element which in theory could most be used to screw around with robots the most would have to be display: none and yet there are a million legitimate uses for that too, so I don't see how SEs could punish that without damaging a massive number of legit rankings.

I suppose in a way it's erring on the side of caution but I very much doubt there would be any benefit.

[JoJo]

I dont see why the necessity to exclude robots from the css file - infact surely it could be seen as a dodgy move?

As long as heading font sizes arn't all over the place(vary out of the norm over a page) then setting the size of a header should surely be ok

[Ashvin]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

I would change the font size via css and then exclude robots from the css file.

John, I don't want to be rude but excluding CSS with robots.txt is THE strategy a serious webmaster would not dare think about these days considering the severe stance google is taking against spammers using CSS as a means to show hidden text on their pages.

The method sarahk suggested is the most seo friendly way to do it. And yea, it absolutely has no effect on the serps. Turning the H1 text into a normal text would go unnoticed by google as well. I think H1 is old story now. Let's move on

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by JoJo

I dont see why the necessity to exclude robots from the css file - infact surely it could be seen as a dodgy move?

If you are not hiding text using CSS + robots exclusion, you have nothing to worry about.

[John Scott]

I'll put it this way, your site may be flagged for manual review if you exclude robots from the CSS, but if you aren't hiding text using CSS, then you have nothing to fear from manual review.

[Dom]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

I'll put it this way, your site may be flagged for manual review if you exclude robots from the CSS, but if you aren't hiding text using CSS, then you have nothing to fear from manual review.

And no reason to hide the CSS in the first place.

[John Scott]

Dom, if you don't want to exclude the robots, then don't. I am just saying that excluding them from the robots.txt and from /images can present a cleaner page for the robots to index.

[Dom]

I just wondered if there was any evidence of that being the case. The nice thing about SEO is that there's often no exact right and wrong way of doing things.

[John Scott]

Never really did any testing, but I would definitely think that this page is more SE-friendly than this page.

I'll do some testing and report back.

[cimmeron]

ok, but what's the difference other than you removed the link to the external css?