HTML5 Heading Structure

[LostKobrakai]

As I've a new project coming up I'm currently doing a little preliminary research of best practices. Now I found this article (http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/the-truth-about-multiple-h1-tags-in-the-html5-era--webdesign-16824) about the usage of multiple h1 as it is allowed by the html5 spec. The comments below are quite controverse, but I actually like the idea of each section of the page having it's own headlinestructure, as it's much easier to build self contained html chunks.

As the article is already a year old, are there any insights in browser and/or issues with screen readers? How do you guys handle with the new specs? Do you still markup headings the old html4 way or do you use the new sectioning / seperate headline structure?

[Joss]

From my point of view this has less to do with html5 and more to do with SEO. The general thought is that you should have one H1, then a group of H2s, more H3 and so on. Though there are arguments against that as well. It is all about second guessing Google and Bing

When it comes to HTML5 and SEO, however, it is probably more important to look at structural elements such as <article> and <section> and then the relevant attributes from Schema.org: 

 

<article role="article" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting" itemscope>

 

And so on

[LostKobrakai]

When it comes to HTML5 and SEO, however, it is probably more important to look at structural elements such as <article> and <section> and then the relevant attributes from Schema.org:

Actually you do need to use those to be able to use multiple h1's according to the specs (All the other sectionroots are not that imporant). So I'll definetly use those more in the future.

[jacmaes]

This article summarizes the current concensus: http://blog.adrianroselli.com/2013/12/the-truth-about-truth-about-multiple-h1.html?m=1

In a word, don't use multiple H1.

[LostKobrakai]

I can see the concern especially about assistive software. But on the other hand html 5 is not a draft anymore and the last update of your article was a few month before that. I think for my current project I'll still go with a traditional headline structure. But in the long term the html5 spec should become more and more supported. 

This should make building modular sites much easier, because you don't need to care if you're placing the module after a h3 or h4. Each h1 in this module will automatically become a h4 or h5, given it's wrapped in a sectioning element.