Drupal Has Multiple h1 Tags

Older versions of drupal used the h1 tag for the site logo and h2 tag for the page title. Since h1 is one of the most important tags for SEO, the drupal community lobbied to get rid of the h1 for the logo and to change the h2 tag in the tag to an h1 tag. But, I have just noticed that there is a situation where Drupal has multiple h1 tags!

I hadn't noticed this before since the themes I've used for sites I've built have always been custom so we've had ultimate control of the header area. But, if you use the Bluemarine theme, like I am here, and use a "site name", like I'm doing here (the text "Kristen Pol" at the top of the site), then you will have two h1 tags on your page.

There are other themes that have the h1 tag in the header area as well. Bluemarine, chameleon, and marvin use it for the site name. Garland and minelli use it for the logo, site name, and site slogan (all together). Pushbutton is the only drupal theme that does not use the h1 within the header area.

There is a controversy as to whether multiple h1 tags are good or bad or neutral for SEO. It seems that it may make sense to have more than one h1 in some cases. But, if you were to use multiple h1 tags, you would want to create each one yourself so you had complete control over what was in them. And, you'd want unique h1 tags as much as possible.

Since the "site name" h1 is showing up throughout the entire site and isn't really relevant to most of the page content (except perhaps my resume page or drupal programmer page) then it I imagine it is HURTING my SEO.

So, what can I do?

Since Drupal has multiple h1 tags, I will modify the Bluemarine theme (as a custom theme - not in the core) and get rid of the h1 tag myself. Here is my post for how to customize a drupal theme.