Re: Heading tags for accessibility and impact on SEO

thank you all, for your valuable suggestions. much appreciated.

On Sun, Sep 25, 2022 at 1:59 PM Steve Green <steve.green@testpartners.co.uk>
wrote:

> This sounds like a bizarre request unless the SEO team are concerned about
> being penalised for having too many headings, which search engines could
> interpret as a black hat activity.
>
>
>
> Instead of using <h3> elements, you could use <div role="heading"
> aria-level="3">. For user agents that use the browser’s accessibility tree
> (which includes all the major assistive technologies), this looks exactly
> the same as an <h3> heading.
>
>
>
> I can’t think of any reason that search engines would look at the
> accessibility tree. They will almost certainly just look at the initial
> source code and/or the DOM, in which case they would just see it as a <div>.
>
>
>
> Steve Green
>
> Managing Director
>
> Test Partners Ltd
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Monica Olsson <molsson@sbctc.edu>
> *Sent:* 22 September 2022 19:05
> *To:* David Woolley <forums@david-woolley.me.uk>; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> *Subject:* Re: Heading tags for accessibility and impact on SEO
>
>
>
> Interesting problem. I am having a hard time understanding why correct
> semantic markup and use of headings would have a negative impact on SEO.
> Kiran, can your team provide you with more context and information about
> what they were seeing with SEO results and headings that led them to remove
> the markup?
>
>
>
>
>
> [image: Title: SBCTC logo - Description: Compass]*Monica M. Olsson
> (she/her/hers)*
>
> Policy Associate – Accessible IT Coordinator
>
> Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
>
> *molsson@sbctc.edu <molsson@sbctc.edu>* • o: 360-704-3922 • c:
> 206-914-7187
>
> sbctc.edu <https://www.sbctc.edu/> • Twitter: *@SBCTCWashington*
> <https://twitter.com/SBCTCWashington> • Facebook:* @WASBCTC
> <https://www.facebook.com/wasbctc/>*
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* David Woolley <forums@david-woolley.me.uk>
> *Sent:* Thursday, September 22, 2022 10:45 AM
> *To:* w3c-wai-ig@w3.org <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
> *Subject:* Re: Heading tags for accessibility and impact on SEO
>
>
>
> On 22/09/2022 18:35, Kiran wrote:
> >   the other team replied that it is removed intentionally for SEO
> reasons.
>
> I think we'd really need to know what those reasons were.  I would have
> hoped that correct semantic markup would help with search engines
> (unless they are trying to mislead the search engine).
>