Hi!
I am finally validating my pages and am confused about the correct use of the h1 tag. I knew before using the validation that I had misused the tag - I had several h1 on my index page for instance (still there. I haven't uploaded the reworked files yet http://www.shake-and-shine.com). So I changed my heading css and only used one h1 per page, but I still got a validation error. Looking into the coffeecup themes, I saw that the header of a page usually has the h1 tag. I've worked my pages originally from your Paper Mag Theme (not that you can still see it) and Paper Mag has this header:

<header>
<div id="logoTxt">
<h1><span></span></h1>
<h2><span></span></h2>
</div>
<h1><span>Short Description or Tagline.</span></h1>
</header>

I didn't see a function to the empty h1 and h2 tags and removed them for my site. Just to test it out, I added <h1></h1> tags in my header and run validation again. This time, I didn't get an h1 warning but it complained about empty h1 tags.
(The validator is also complaining about missing section headings, but again the Paper Mag theme does not have them either).

I am running the validation because I am doing some basic SEO to my site. So, I wouldn't think that empty h1 tags would be helpful for search engines to find my site.
What is your recommendation? Please safe the honor of your theme!

Thanks, Monika

You could wrap your logo in the <h1> tags:


Maybe this should be your <h2> (rather than an <h3>)?
Then use <h3> for your other headings (Canine Wash, Deli, etc.).

In html5 you CAN use multiple h1 tags on one and the same page if each of them is the heading of an article, wrapped in the article tags. See http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/ … sign-16824

Paintbrush - I tried your suggestion but the validator doesn't like a div wrapped into a h1.

Inger - Thanks I will check that out.

Paintbrush never suggested wrapping a div with h1 tags. What he suggested was to wrap your logo img in h1 tags

James, thanks!

A lot of the structure of my site comes from adapting the hell out of an existing theme, and I finally took out the div logo construct and turned it into an img. So now i could try it!