Subheadings, AKA “Headings” are one of the most important aspects of creating SEO friendly content as well as high quality content. You’ve most likely experienced the importance of subheadings while scanning your favorite blogs and online publications. When there is a lack of headings, a blog post can feel overwhelming, hard to read, and even boring. It will look like one giant paragraph, feel less aesthetically pleasing, and the main points don’t jump off the page.

Most internet users only scan or skim blog content. So headings help capture their attention and encourage readers to engage with your content with more awareness. Subheadings help bloggers break up their content, add personality and aesthetic appeal, plus pack an SEO optimization punch.

In today’s post we are answering the question, what are subheadings? Plus, we’ll explain why they matter for SEO, aesthetics, and how to use them properly.

What Are Subheadings?

Subheadings, also known as headings or heading tags, are HTML tags that appear as titles and sub titles within a blog post. They help break up your content to make it more readable. Plus, act as cues to readers and search engines as to what your blog post is about.

Subheadings help grab the attention of your readers and showcase the most important sections of your content. For example, the highlighted text above this paragraph “What Are Subheadings” is a subheading. The text below this paragraph “why are subheadings important” is also a subheading. These examples help break up the content and cue both the reader and search engines as to what the normal “paragraph” text below the heading is going to be about.

Why Are Headings Important?

Using headings in your blog posts is important for two main reasons.

Readability – how user friendly or “readable” is your content for the average internet user.
SEO Optimization: the process and practice of creating content that follows search engine algorithm best practices and guidelines for creating quality content.

Readability:

You’re typically creating readable content if your writing style flows, you don’t have run on sentences, you use headings to break up your blog post, and you write conversationally. Creating readable content will make your post more enjoyable for the user. Plus, you encourage the user to engage with your content more intentionally. The user will be able to find the answers they’re looking for because your post is broken down into sections. When use headings and subheadings, readers can easily scan your post to find the most important information.

SEO Optimization:

We like to compare headings in blog posts to bold or highlighted text. Yes, they can actually aesthetically appear as highlighted or bolded. As our headings do in this post. However, think of heading code on the backend as highlighted or bolded text specifically for search engines. When you use headings in your post, you’ve indicated to search engines what is most important in the post. You’re highlighting the questions you answer, and the main topics and subtopics you cover. You showcase the value the content is capable of adding for the reader.

There is more to SEO for bloggers than just using headings, but its definitely important. Google states that headings should be used “to emphasize important text”. The company goes on to say that you should “Use meaningful headings to indicate important topics, and help create a hierarchical structure for your content, making it easier for users to navigate through your document.”

How To Add Subheadings To Your Blog Posts

How you add headings to your blog posts depends on what CMS platform you’re using, and what version of the CMS platform you’re using. Below, we’re sharing how to add subheadings in the platform most of our clients use, and the platform we recommend for SEO, which is WordPress Gutenberg Block editor.

How To Add Headings in WordPress Gutenberg Block Editor:

Gutenberge wordpress editor is a block system. So each heading is basically considered a “block” with a new block to follow it for paragraph text.

Add the block
There are multiple ways to add a block in Gutenberg. You can simply press the “enter” key. Or, you can click the blue plus sign in the top left corner of your blog post editing page.
Choose the heading block type
When you click the blue plus sign, all the heading options will appear. Choose the heading type option. If you used the “enter” option to create a new block. You’ll need to press the black plus sign on the right of the block to select the heading block types. You can also simply place your cursor where it says “start writing or type..” and the block mini menu will appear. The block type option is on the right hand side of the mini menu.
Choose your heading level
H2 will be auto selected. So you can click H2 to change the heading type to see more options. Your options will also typically appear on the right hand menu in Gutenberg for WordPress.
Type your heading text
Then, all you need to do is type out your heading text. For this example I typed out “Subheading and Heading Tips” in H6. You can also easily add links, bold the text, change alignment, etc. using the mini menu above the block.

And thats it! See how easy it is to add subheading to your blog posts in WordPress Gutenberg? If you’re using classic editor of WordPress or a different CMS platform, feel free to reach out to us if you need help learning how to add subheadings to your posts. We can help!

A quick list of tips to remember:

Use headings to break up your content.
Design headings that you like the look of. Most WordPress themes come with predetermined heading designs. So make sure you like them or have your programmer manually edit the fonts and colors of your headings.
Headings should be visibly larger than your paragraph text and overall stand out.
Put your most important keywords in headings, but avoid keyword stuffing. It should feel completely organic and natural. Headings should always be a true reflection of the content that follows it.
Headings should go in order of importance. So put your most important topics in higher level subheadings.
Studies show that sites using subheadings 2-6 in an individual post rank higher than posts using only 1-3. So use all of your available subheadings if you’re on WordPress!

Are you using headings in your blog posts?

Hopefully this post has helped you feel more confident when using headings in your blog posts. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask away in the comments below. We are here to help! You can also reach out to us directly via our contact form on the bottom of our services page.

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What Are Subheadings & How To Add Them