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SEO Dissidence: Is H1 really that important? 🧐
After 17+ years in maintenance, I've seen countless SEO briefs demanding a visible H1 on every homepage. But is it a law or just a myth?
I decided to check how the "big players" handle it. The results might surprise you:
🚫 Amazon & Bloomberg: H1 is completely missing.
🕵️ Apple & NYT: H1 is hidden in a 1px element.
🏗️ eBay: The logo is wrapped in H1 (hello, 2008!).
🌐 Google's Blog: H1 is nowhere to be found.
The Lesson? 💡
Optimization isn't about blindly following rules. If the world’s biggest platforms ignore "established" SEO beliefs for the sake of UX, maybe we should too.
Read my full investigation on Medium https://tovstonos.medium.com/...
tovstonos.medium.com
SEO Dissidence. Is H1 really that important on the Homepage?
Over the past 12 years freelancing as a website maintenance specialist, I’ve collaborated with various SEO teams. Working with them always…
I'm curious: if you’re a designer, how often do you have to fight for your UI because of rigid SEO briefs? 🥊 And if you're an SEO, do you think UX should ever take a back seat for the sake of a perfect H1 hierarchy? Let’s find a middle ground!
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Digiket: a free website template for SEO and marketing agencies.
The traffic chart sits on the photo, so a result shows first. Link in the reply.
Your website is no longer just being read by people.
AI search engines are reading it too and they understand your website in ways surprisingly similar to how a good UX designer evaluates it.
@Framer's latest AEO guide highlights a few things that matter:
1. Clarity beats cleverness - If a page jumps between ideas, uses vague language, or assumes too much context, AI systems have a harder time understanding what the page actually means.
2. Structure matters - Clear headings, sections, summaries, definitions, and FAQs help AI break content into usable chunks. That is essentially good information architecture.
3. Context > Keywords - AI search is not simply matching keywords. It is trying to understand relationships between ideas, anticipate follow-up questions, and determine whether a page provides enough context to answer them.
This changes how I think about AEO.
You don't need to "write for AI." You need to build websites that are genuinely easy to understand.
For humans first. And increasingly, for machines too.
That means website strategy, content architecture, UX, SEO, and AI discoverability are becoming much more connected.
The interesting part?
Good UX is starting to become good AI optimization.
If your website is struggling with poor AEO results, book a free discovery call today!
Modern website designed for a local plumbing company in Houston.
Clean, professional layout focused on emergency services, with strong call-to-action buttons and mobile-friendly design. Built to help the business get more calls from local customers.
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