How will HTML5 affect SEO for content and headings?

[Graf1771]

HTML5 is still being finalised and although it will be several years before it becomes the standard verion of HTML used across the internet there are plenty of sites starting to use the new markup - an obvious example is YouTube using the <video> tag on some of it's pages to show video without needing Flash... For the most part we won't need to worry about HTML5 until IE9 has been released and IE6/7 has disappeared or at least drops to a sufficiently low level to not worry about but it's worth thinking about now - with the launch of the iPad, HTML5 is getting talked about a lot more.

Some of the main differences between HTML5 and HTML4 is that there are new elements eg. <section> <header> <footer> <article>. Each of these elements are designed to contain certain parts of the web document to allow for easier accessibility - and no doubt the big search engines are already working out how best to read HTML5 sites and use the data to optimise their results.

Something I've found strange when building my first HTML5 site is the multiple use of H1 tags across the site - each <section> or <article> can contain a <header> with it's own H1 tag... So the traditional semantic HTML markup goes out of the window somewhat.

So, how will this affect how we write SEO content? Do we still need to worry about keywords across a whole page or can we concentrate just on an <article> area within a page?

I'm wondering how the semantic markup for HTML5 will affect current SEO techniques and if the big search engines are already reading HTML5 differently?

If you'd like to see more HTML5 sites, check out: http://101besthtml5sites.com/

If you haven't seen what HTML5 code looks like, it's worth clicking through to some of the sites and viewing the source - it looks complicated to start with but it quickly begins to make sense... And we haven't even started on what CSS3 will turn out like! :-)

[mgandy]

Thanks for the post. This is a very interesting topic and will have to keep eye out for any developments on this subject. I'm definitely interested to see how this will affect natural web rankings. Although in my opinion over the past 6 months or so I feel that the <h1> heading tag has lost some luster amongst the search engines and this might be because of the html5 developments you have been talking about.

[Dinghus]

Let me weigh in on this a little. Having written, run, and watched crash, my first program in 1970, I have seen many things and one that always gets me is that at first we all want "simple". Then along comes the next generation who want more complex. I see this happening with HTML. It was supposed to be so simple a child could do it. And they do. But as time went on some developers decided it had to be more powerful. So it is getting more complex and more confusing. There are languages out there that do the complex stuff, why add HTML to it? If I need a database driven site, I will use ColdFusion or PHP, not HTML. HTML is for the basic webpage. Anybody can do it.

Of course, as is pointed out, one of the reasons for HTML 5 is to do away with Flash. This is what Bill Gates said years ago he would do. He pushed for HTML to do everything Flash does so he could take down Macromedia (now Adobe). Microsoft wants to do away with everything but their software and PHP and ColdFusion are the biggest competitors for websites out there. Thus if they go away, MS will rule again.

The powers that be need to leave HTML alone. Pure and simple. It was created to display simple webpages. Leave it at that.

[morestar]

So the question I have is, is it totally OK to start coding in the new HTML 5? Will doing so at this time go against the W3C validation standards?

[NJ]

The powers that be need to leave HTML alone. Pure and simple. It was created to display simple webpages. Leave it at that.

Sigh, oh for the good 'ole <b>. Why do I have to teach my students that <b> is deprecated and the longer <strong> is not. I vote for deprecating <strong> in favor of <b.

[HTMLBasicTutor]

So the question I have is, is it totally OK to start coding in the new HTML 5? Will doing so at this time go against the W3C validation standards?

Implementors should be aware that this specification is not stable. Implementors who are not taking part in the discussions are likely to find the specification changing out from under them in incompatible ways. Vendors interested in implementing this specification before it eventually reaches the Candidate Recommendation stage should join the aforementioned mailing lists and take part in the discussions.
Under Status of This document HTML5 Editor's Draft 12 May 2010 (http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html) Ian Hickson, Google, Inc.

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Of course, as is pointed out, one of the reasons for HTML 5 is to do away with Flash. This is what Bill Gates said years ago he would do. He pushed for HTML to do everything Flash does so he could take down Macromedia (now Adobe). Microsoft wants to do away with everything but their software and PHP and ColdFusion are the biggest competitors for websites out there. Thus if they go away, MS will rule again.

Adobe Systems Inc. is represented by a number of people in the HTML Working Group (Christopher Bank, Anand Samuel Edwin, Dragos Georgita, Raghavan Gurumurthy, Raul Hudea, Mayank Kumar, Matthew MacKenzie, Larry Masinter, Matthew May, Tom Nguyen, Leonard Rosenthol, Monikandan S, Sorin Sbarnea) so they had their chance to justify not exnaying Flash support.

[Graf1771]

I don't think that HTML5 is being designed with the eradication of Flash in mind, it may be one of the offshoots but not a reason.

As for the argument that HTML was designed for basic web pages, that doesn't really hold up to scrutiny - at the time there was only the possibility of simple web pages. Broadband was a distant dream, mobile phones were still in their infancy, mobile computing had hardly begun and computers were substantially less powerful. As we've all got used to accessing the internet in more ways than ever, we need a new language to help with accessing it... HTML5 might not quite be there yet, but it's a good start.

So, back to the original question... Will we need to re-think our webpage SEO when writing content for HTML5 websites?

[imateski]

From what I read on the net, HTML5 will mostly help SEO, thanks to the new tags such as ARTICLE, SECTION, HEADER, FOOTER etc.
Basically, it seems that with these new HTML5 tags, content will be easier to identify (and index) from the structure of the HTML document. Also, the content itself will be easily dividable using the SECTION tag, and in reality we'll be able to divide a single article in different sections, with its own header info. This segmenting will minimize/eliminate pages in search queries that only mention parts of the search query in different sections. Instead, thanks to HTML5, we can optimize certain sections for specific keyphrases in the text and in the header tags.
I've also seen that HTML5 will treat images so that ALT will be gone. What this will mean I'm not sure. Maybe the text assigned to images will be treated as if it's part of the web copy, so we'll hopefully be able to use graphic-rich text banners with that same text added as attribute. So we please search engines and readers.

[kgun]

Google have already started to use HTML5



New Google releases are like buses – you wait ages for one, and them two (or more (http://unplugged.rcrwireless.com/index.php/20101209/industry/5804/a-roller-coaster-week-for-google-fans/)) come along at once. Yesterday we brought you news of Google’s cloud print mobile beta (http://unplugged.rcrwireless.com/index.php/20110124/news/6669/google-enables-cloud-printing-from-mobile-devices/), and now Google have unveiled another cool new addition to their mobile offering – updated, location-sensing HTML5 weather searches with a time-of-day slider.

Source: http://unplugged.rcrwireless.com/index.php/20110125/devices/6676/google-updates-mobile-weather-with-html5-goodness/

See also



Every new Apple mobile device and every new Mac — along with the latest version of Apple’s Safari web browser — supports web standards including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. These web standards are open, reliable, highly secure, and efficient. They allow web designers and developers to create advanced graphics, typography, animations, and transitions. Standards aren’t add-ons to the web. They are the web. And you can start using them today.

Source: http://www.apple.com/html5/

SEO effects?

Only indirectly to improve user experience.

[weegillis]

This topic is renewed in this thread: Breaking down your SEO keywords with <header> and <hgroup> (http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-forum/threads/111169-Breaking-down-your-SEO-keywords-with-lt-header-gt-and-lt-hgroup-gt?p=579302#post579302).