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The Art Of The Subhead

Aren't subheads wonderful things? Seriously, you know they are.

Wait, you (gasp) don't know what subheads are? Or, even worse, you don't think subheads are that amazing? Seriously, it's time for a little re-education -- don't force me to get all Clockwork Orange on you (I'll do it).

For those of you who don't know subheads (or those of you who don't properly love the subhead), let's go through a quick refresher course.

Subheads: This Is A Subhead

See that right above here? It's the bolded, slightly larger text telling you what you're going to read in this section -- that's a subhead.

It serves a few purposes. One of the most important is that it helps readers (regular folk) digest what you're writing. When someone sees huge unbroken pages of text, it's discouraging, even for the most avid readers. A well-placed subhead will help break up the text into smaller portions.

Think of your writing like food -- you don't want to stuff something un-chewable in your mouth. Do as your mother always instructed and cut your food (and your writing) up into smaller portions! I promise, people will thank you.

Subheads And The Mystery Of The Algorithm

Let's look at a page of text from an algorithm's point of view. For ease, let's use this one.

Heading? "The Art Of The Subhead." Check.

Subheads? " Subheads: "This Is A Subhead" and "Subheads And The Mystery Of The Algorithm." Check.

Meta? "Using subheads will not only make your text easier to understand, but it'll help you rank in search engines. With subheads, your rankings will improve!" and "Subheads, using subheads for ranking, seo subheads." Check.

Text? Mentions subheads. Check.

Ranking: If someone searches for "subheads" this page might be a good one for them to read.

This, then, is exactly why you should use subheads when you're thinking about search engine optimization. The algorithm will look at your heading, your subheads, your Meta and text to determine your topic.

If all of these things have the same theme (subheads), then you'll get a better chance of ranking for that theme. (Getting some in-bound links with your theme as your anchor text wouldn't hurt either, but that's a whole other discussion.)

Now, go forth and multiply, write something, edit your subheads and keep your theme solid and on topic!

--Morgan Greenhalgh