"Optimize the H1 first, it's the most important on-page signal."

"Optimize the H1 first, it's the most important on-page signal."

Sorry.

The title tag and the H1 do different jobs and you're ranking them backwards. The title tag is what the SERP shows and what algorithms weight as the page's stated subject. The H1 is a body element Google treats as one heading among many — useful, not load-bearing.

So the comparison is about where attention goes. If you have an hour, it goes on the title: it's the headline in the auction, it drives the click, it carries the keyword that matters. The H1 should match intent and orient the reader, but a perfect H1 under a weak title is a nice frame around an empty room.

The "H1 is king" myth survives because tools flag missing H1s in red and missing keyword-in-title in nothing. Red dots aren't priority.

(And no, you don't get penalized for two H1s. That study you're quoting was about HTML4 outline semantics that browsers never implemented.)