Currently, all important content, is mostly found within either a <div> or a <span> HTML tag. I cannot emphasise the importance of content from an SEO perspective enough but here I shall focus on the HTML tags the content is found within. You may ask what is the importance of what tag is used for your content? Now there may not be a huge difference but in the future it seems that the HTML tags your content is found within may have a significant impact upon Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and your website.

It seems that the search engines are looking to develop the area of page segmentation. Humans can automatically work out where the relevant content on a web page is; however, the search engines do not currently have this ability.

Rather than putting equal weight upon every piece of information the search engine spiders view on a web page, the idea is that some areas of a web page are more important than others from a relevancy, and therefore an SEO, point of view. The search engines would be more efficient if they could put more weight upon the main content of a page rather than the navigational links and footers for example and in doing so would be able to use less resources and become more efficient. However, as most content is found within <div> or <span> tags, currently there is no way to differentiate the importance of each area of a web page, other than the proximity to the top of the page within the HTML code. HTML 5 is said to address this area.

As well as <div> and <span> tags other HTML tags shall be introduced with the aim to explain the semantic make up of a web page. These tags will include such areas as <article> for blogs, <header> and <footer>, which are self-explanatory, and <nav> for the navigational links. As web browsers begin to adopt these HTML 5 elements it will be no time at all until the search engines will begin to incorporate these elements into their algorithms. Whilst there is no immediate requirement to change the way your web pages are coded it is worthwhile to keep up to date with HMTL developments and what this could mean for your site and SEO in general.

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Content, Search Engine Optimisation