text: does h1 or h2 or h3 matter? does it matter if you use  or  or ? like will one or the other get your site penalized or banned from search engines? does hx matter? yes it does but no one outside the search engines algorithm engineers knows just how much it matters.  it is safe to assume that the search engines have automated systems to determine a page's quality but what factors are used is unknown.   based on experience an hx hierarchy in headings and subheadings, ordered lists, quotations, citations, on-page anchor text, bold and italic will all contribute to a page's quality.  so the message is concentrate on providing an overall quality page for your users and don't force yourself to use hx just because your heard it is good for the search engines.