I have a site where I am trying to use a question answer format as my sales pitch. The beginning 2 paragraphs ask the viewer questions answer them to lure them into my product.

I know that you should place your keywords at the top of your website for SEO. I also hear that you should place <h> tags with KW as well.

What I did was utilize a <-h1-> tag in my middle paragraph to hightlight my keywords. I used CSS to make the h tag look just like normal text so it flows normally like this sentence.

Is this a bad technique? I am not sure if search engines just scan for a h tag on the page, and not care where it is, or if that TOO needs to be at the top of the webpage.
Thanks

I wouldn't use H1 tags like that. What I would do is use H1 tags for keywords within their own heading or paragraph. For example ...

[html]This is an introductory paragraph telling you about my car dealership.

<h1>Used Toyota Car</h1>
This is a secondary paragraph about the toyota car.

<h1>Used Honda Car</h1>
This is a secondary paragraph about the honda car.
[/html]

wouldn't use them like that?

i understand the REAL point of using them, but would i be penalized for using them the way i want to?

i dont' want my keywords as paragraph titles. i am using questions to lure the reader to read the paragraph itself, which has the KW in it.

an H1 tag modified via CSS should be slighly larger or bolder than less important text in order to get SEO benefit - IMHO

you will get the benefit of H1 tag even if you use CSS to modify it...

What you can do is have all your questions written at the top one below the other and use keywords & H1 there..as for the answers you can place anchors....this way you will have all your keywords right at the begining of the page...

this is just a suggestion, dunno what kinda Q & A you have used on your site...