This tutorial is for the classic theme setup, which is outdated. Only follow this if you're on the classic theme setup without the Feast Plugin.
All sites should be using the Modern Homepage through the Feast Plugin, which has the h1 pre-built into it.
If your goal is to run a revenue-supported recipe content site, the Feast plugin is necessary.
In theme versions 4.3.0+ (and the Feast Plugin 3.4.2+), we've removed the h1 from the side-wide header. This is because h1's should be page-specific, not site-wide.
All posts and categories have proper h1 tags, however, the homepage does not. You will need to add an h1 tag to the "Homepage: Top" section.
To do this, go to Admin > Appearances > Widgets > Homepage Top > add a "Custom HTML" widget at the top with the following:
<h1>Bake your cake from scratch, not your blog</h1>
Replace the h1 content with your site's tagline.
Do not use a "widget title".
Q: Why does the homepage need an h1?
While not explicitly defined in Google's SEO Starter Guide, the SEO community widely considers the presence of an h1 tag to be a basic SEO requirement on each page.
This is what Google's guide has to say on heading tags.
Q: I don't like the look of this and want to hide it, is that okay?
No. Hidden text is explicitly against Google's webmaster guidelines.
This h1 tag should be descriptive of your site in general. If you don't want to use your site title, you can use a site tagline, or any text describing what your site is about.
Lisa Walker says
Hello,
I have a question about using H1 in blog post titles. When I look at the HTML I can see where I've used H2, H3, etc., but I do not see H1. Is it done automatically for me? If it is not done automatically, how to I designate the title as H1?
Thank you!
Skylar Bowker says
Your page should ONLY have 1 h1 tag - and that should be the post/page title. This is automatically done on our themes, except the homepage as noted in this post.
Do not use h1s in your post headings. If your recipe card has an h1, you need to modify it.
Emma says
I have added the H1 tag as above, but I now have an error saying I have two h2 tags on the homepage. It seems to be trying to use site_title for H1, but it pulling blank for that even though I have it set.
Thanks,
Emma
Skylar Bowker says
If you're using an outdated version of the theme, there will be an h1 tag wrapping the site title/logo. You'll need to update your theme.
Sandra Flegg says
The tutorials for Feast and the Modern Homepage are fantastic! Love the step-by-step videos as well. Its there a way to enter styling to centre the H1 for the Modern Homepage?
Skylar says
h1.entry-title {
text-align: center;
}
If you add this to your "Additional CSS" it will apply site-wide. If you just want it on the homepage, add it to the "Per Page CSS" section: https://feastdesignco.com/per-page-css/