[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #12542: Fix title and h1 elements for Twenty Ten theme

[WordPress Trac]

#12542: Fix title and h1 elements for Twenty Ten theme
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 Reporter:  mikeschinkel  |       Owner:           
     Type:  defect (bug)  |      Status:  new      
 Priority:  normal        |   Milestone:  3.0      
Component:  Themes        |     Version:  3.0      
 Severity:  normal        |    Keywords:  has-patch
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Comment(by mikeschinkel):

 Replying to [comment:5 dd32]:
 > Personally, I'm a huge -1 to this patch.
 >
 > I'm against changing element types based on the type of page being
 displayed.

 Figures. This is the first thing I have to fix with most themes.  I
 thought it was because theme developers were just being lazy, but
 evidently it's actually a preference?

 Why are you against this?  Is it a personal preference or is there
 codified best practice somewhere I can read that explain why this isn't
 the best approach?

 It may be less "''elegant''" from a coding perspective but in my opinion
 it's the thing you want 99% of the time (and I've been coding business
 sites for the web since 1994.) The home page is fundamentally different
 than all other pages; it is the root page.  <h1> has become the convention
 for ''"the most important description of this page''", especially for
 search engines (this is white hat SEO.)

 FROM: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/268475/h1-in-article-page-site-
 title-or-article-title
 Six Votes: "''On your blog's home page, I would use H1 to denote the site
 title and H2 for the titles of the individual blog posts that are
 published on the front page''."

 FROM http://prandall.com/2009/02/06/the-h1-debate/
 "''I do agree, there are certain pages that don’t have a specific main
 heading. For example the Digg.com website uses an H1 as the title on its
 homepage, yet uses an H1 as the main heading of an inside page, but every
 inner page has different content, and I think the H1 should describe it.
 After reading the tweets, I have grown to like the idea of using an H1 on
 the homepage for the company name or logo, and to use H1 on ‘inside’ pages
 for the main page title. When entering a particular article, though, I
 would use H1 for the article title and an anchor for the site title.''"

 Presuming there is actually a reason for some people not to do what I
 propose would you support an option on the General Settings page (or the
 Miscellaneous Settings page) labeled "''Wrap site title with <h1> element
 on home page?''"

 > I'm also against hiding the title on front-page page's, Whilst i've
 removed it in the past for some installs, for a lot of people, they expect
 the title to be displayed.

 It only hides the title when a site has a static home page.

 The problem is if you <h1> the page title you often end up with "<h1>Home
 Page</h1>" which is not how something searching for a site will refer to
 it as (search engines view <h1> as an indicator of importance as I'm sure
 you know.)

 Can you give me one example of a reasonably designed site where the home
 page displays a page title that looks just like every other page on the
 site?  Can you give me one example of a site that ''should'' display a
 page title for a static home page?  Can you give me reasons why it should
 be displayed on the home page?

 This report talks in depth about how the real estate of the home page
 should be designed rather than just be happenstance as is the case when
 the title is displayed:

 http://www.adaptivepath.com/ideas/reports/signup/

 > Those that really want to hide it, can do so easily via CSS right now or
 remove it in a custom theme..

 Alternate with this patch, those who want to add it back could do so with
 a custom theme...

 Assuming we identify a real reason why it makes sense to display the title
 on the home page would adding an option on the Settings/Reading page to
 disable the title be sufficient to allow you to support this?

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/12542#comment:6>
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