How to use H1 tags on a forum site?

[len backus]

I have read that H1 tags are effective in increasing PR. How would one insert H1 tags to do this?

[bernard]

I inserted H1 tags around the thread title in the navbar breadcrumb code on CWE (see source code for any thread on the site in my sig). I added H2 tags around post titles too.

[len backus]

Bernard, that's exactly what I am looking for! Can you tell me which template and where to put this code, please?

[bernard]

In navbar:

...
<!-- breadcrumb, login, pm info -->
<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center">
<tr>
	<td class="alt1" width="100%">
		<if condition="is_array($navbits)">
			<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
			<tr valign="bottom">
				<td><a href="#" onclick="history.back(1); return false;"><img src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/navbits_start.gif" alt="$vbphrase[go_back]" border="0" /></a></td>
				<td>&nbsp;</td>
				<td width="100%"><span class="navbar"><a href="http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/$session[sessionurl_q]" accesskey="1">$vboptions[bbtitle]</a></span> $navbits[breadcrumb]</td>
			</tr>
			<tr>
				<td class="navbar" style="font-size:10pt; padding-top:1px" colspan="3"><if condition="$_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST'"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/navbits_finallink_$stylevar[textdirection].gif" alt="" border="0" /><else /><h1 style="font-size:10pt;"><a href="$scriptpath"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/navbits_finallink_$stylevar[textdirection].gif" alt="$vbphrase[reload_this_page]" border="0" /></a></if> <strong>$navbits[lastelement]</strong></h1></td>
...

In postbit:

...
	<!-- message, attachments, sig -->
	
		$template_hook[postbit_messagearea_start]
		
		<if condition="$show['messageicon'] OR $post['title']">
			<!-- icon and title -->
			<!-- <div class="smallfont"> -->
			<h2 class="smallfont">
				<if condition="$show['messageicon']"><img class="inlineimg" src="$post[iconpath]" alt="$post[icontitle]" border="0" /></if>
				<if condition="$post['title']"><strong>$post[title]</strong></if>
			</h2>
			<!-- </div> -->
			<hr size="1" style="color:$stylevar[tborder_bgcolor]" />
			<!-- / icon and title -->
		</if>
...

[jbartle]

You could also use Relevant Replacements and have h1 and h2 tags within it. I think that's the preferred way of doing it around here.

[len backus]

jbartle, thanks. Could you explain what that means and how to do it, please.

[tavenger5]

This is what I did in my postbit:

                <td>
                    <if condition="$post['title']"><if condition="!$GLOBALS['FIRSTPOSTID']"><h1 class="headertext1">$post[title]</h1><else /><h2 class="headertext2">$post[title]</h2></if></if>
                </td>

Then in "Additional CSS Definitions" I added:

.headertext1
{
font-size: 120%;
margin: 0;
}

.headertext2
{
font-size: 90%;
margin: 0;
}

This is very effective and clean. I made sure to check "Yes, Click Required" under "Message Posting and Edition Options so every post has "RE: THREAD_TITLE"

[Noodles]

Originally Posted by len backus

I have read that H1 tags are effective in increasing PR. How would one insert H1 tags to do this?

I know I'm being picky, but it doesn't increase PR (page rank), but keywords within h1 tags are treated as being important by search engine spiders. Google page rank calculation has to do with inbound/outbound links rather than content on the page (in general).