TwentyEleven Theme and H1 tags

Hi Kevin,

This is my question about the way wordpress themes configure Heading tags out of the box. I'll make it specific to the TwentyEleven Theme, but I've had similar problems with other themes too.

What's the problem?

• The TwentyEleven theme seems automatically to put the blog title in an H1 tag on every single page
• This theme also seems to put post/page titles in H1 tags on every single page
• The result is TWO H1 tags per page, which obviously isn't good at all

How to fix it?
I had a similar problem with my last wordpress blog (different theme). That theme put blog title in H1 on every single page, and post titles in H2 on every single page.
I had to pay someone with coding/programming/"php" knowledge to edit my theme. He did and I got the configuration I wanted (and that SEOs say is best):

• Blog title in H1 tag on homepage and ONLY on homepage
• Post/page title in H1 tag on all other pages
• Blog title in some sort of "div" tag or "p" tag or H3 (don't really know what)
• Only ONE H1 tag per page

My issue now is this:
I don't want to have to pay someone to fix the template every single time I set up a new wordpress blog. Surely there must be a more efficient, automated way to fix the issue (or avoid it in the first place).
I'm a technophobe and am terrified about tampering with "php" code (I've seen posts that give you lots of code you need to copy and paste but when I did it I messed up the formatting of the blog title and tagline completely!)
So I guess my questions are:
(i) Is there a theme that gets the H1/blog title/post title configuration right out of the box? (so I don't immediately have something to "fix" each time I set up a WP blog?)
(ii) If not, what would you suggest as the best solution for this issue?
Thank you so much for your help! Hopefully this will help other WP users as well!
Best Wishes and Merry Christmas to all,
Adam

Hi Kevin,

Thank you so much for such a quick and helpful response. Yes, I'd like to avoid paying someone to do this (as I had to do last time) because I intend to set up more blogs in future and it would be a pain to have to ask someone to fix this every single time!

Yes, right now I'm using just Twenty Eleven Theme so I'd love a step-by-step guide. I tried to follow the instructions in this article: http://www.rlmseo.com/blog/wordpress-seo-heading-tags/

It "sort of" gives you a step-by-step guide for fixing a similar issue. (Though when I followed it for my last blog I messed up the formatting of the blog title, which got put into very strange sizes and positions!)

However, the thing about the Twenty Eleven Theme (as far as I can see) is that it already puts post title/page title in H1 tags on all pages.

What I need to do to the theme is (I think) this:
(i) Stop it from putting blog title in H1 tags on all pages apart from homepage
(right now it puts blog title in H1 on every page and therefore generates TWO H1 tags on every page - one around post title and one around blog title)
(ii) Keep letting it post/page title in H1 tags on all pages apart from homepage
(iii) Make it put post titles in H2 on homepage
(iv) Make it put blog title in H2 or H3 or <p>/<div> (some people say) on all pages apart from homepage
[I think I'd ideally have it in H3 or this <p> tag thing as my blog title isn't really that relevant on my post pages]
(v) Let it put blog title in H1 on homepage
(vi) Edit CSS stylesheets (I think?!) to make sure blog title looks the same on all pages whether it's in H1, H2, H3, <p> or whatever else.

Would it be possible for you to show me how to do all this? I'd certainly be willing to invest in learning this once and for all as it seems like it's going to be an issue every time I set up a new WP blog!

Thanks again for your fantastic help. Have a great Christmas!

Best Wishes

Adam

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your message. Of course, it's Christmas. I totally understand even if you don't have time for this at all. Anything is a bonus, which I really appreciate.

Perhaps I can make it simpler/condense the issue so as to make it easier for you to address when you have the time.

Twenty Eleven Theme's default set-up (on my blog at least!)

Homepage

• Blog title in <H1>
• Post titles also in <H1>

All other pages (including single post pages)

• Blog title in <H1>
• Post/page title also in <H1>

Set-up I would prefer

Homepage

• Blog title in <H1>
• Post titles in <H2>

All other pages (including single post pages)

• Blog title in <H3> [blog title is really not important on these pages!]
• Post/page title in <H1>

When I tried to do this myself on a previous blog I messed up the formatting of the blog title, because I didn't know how to edit the CSS. Apparently you need to edit the CSS so that the blog title looks the sameno matter whether it's in <H1> or <H3> - i.e. so that it's consistent across all pages.
Anyway, I hope this helps you to help others. Thanks again for all the help. I'll certainly be coming back to wpmods.com regardless!
Hope you had a nice Christmas and have a happy new year!
Adam

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your response.

Yes, I understand that it's best to have just one H1 tag per page. That's one of the reasons why I was so surprised to find that the Twenty Eleven Theme automatically generates TWO of them per page! It seems an odd thing for wordpress to do.

It seems other people are bothered by this as well: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/change-duplicate-h1-tags-for-single-pages-twenty-eleven-theme

Thanks for confirming that you need to edit CSS to make blog title same size regardless of whether it's H1, H2 or whatever. This is something else I feel terrified about doing!

I look forward to your blog post. Thanks again. Hope you had a nice Christmas Kevin,

best Wishes

Adam

Hi Kevin,

Thanks so much for posting your article. I'm sure it will help not just me but tons of other WP-users as well. Have a great new year,

Best Wishes

Adam