I thought this would be easy, but so far, no one has offered a clear suggestion. If I already have H1, H2. H3 tags for titles in the main web page text area, is there a "preferred" way to code a Banner Headline and Subhead that appears at the top of every web page? Right now, I have these banner headlines as plain text because I didn't want to have multiple H1 tags on each page (although some think that doesn't confuse spider robots). Any ideas on how to best maximize the SEO value of banner headlines? Thanks.

If the banner is made with Flash, it won't be read by search engines.

I'm not an expert on SEO, but I'll try to call in someone who is...

As of yet SE's cannot read inside flash, that is assuming your banners are flash based, files but, Adobe and Google are currently working on solving this issue.

The one thing you shouldn't do is have multiple H1 tags on the same page, you may well get penalised for that.

What is a good idea is to use a graphic as a header and save it with a filename that has words in it that relates to the domain name and then use the ALT tag with the graphic using keywords again.
Place your H1 tag as near to the top of the page as possible.