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how much does HTML5 outline algorithm boost SEO in general?


So as the title suggests, im interested / curious about how much does HTML 5 outlining help boost SEO in general.

there are alot of tutorials and explanations as to what HTML5 will do for XYZ, and alot of how-tos but for some of the pluses that HTML5 currently(and future) brings, there isn't a clear mention(that i know of) as to how much better it will/or curently make things.

I work in a...normal team i guess in where we have dedicated graphic designers, coders, programmers etc and part of this team of course are the SEO guys.

Now MANY websites show (under the document outline tool) that many designers/developers are using HTML5 but when you look at their document outline, its all over the place and even have unnamed sections in their outlines.

my guess is that, theyre just using the regular DOC type of HTML <!DOCTYPE HTML> and rolling with it instead of typing the long/massive doctype and everything therein etc...

but that said, and as oppose to the regular "old" rules and debates of H1 tags etc... Since many of HTML5s features are already in play, and most current browsers supporting them(at diff levels), does it hurt when having a semi messed up, unnamed sections in your outline hurt?

Overall, if i convert my page from html of old to new HTML5 standards and proper outlining etc, will it make my standings better?

in a simple question, FOR EXAMPLE, if my current page rankings are say 5/100 on google, will implementing a better, newer doc outline with HTML5 bring me higher, say 3/100 or even 1/100.


Solution

  • You are under the wrongful impression that formatting of the code, or use of standards has something to do with how search engines rank your page. This isn't actually the case.

    What does happen with semantic tags/classes/ids, validating documents, and standards compliant markup is make it a lot easier for search engines interpret the page properly.

    The content, at which levels / order and importance (say with the header tags) mark how relevant it is, and a properly formed document only helps in recognizing the different sections, but has no inherent effect on how well its ranked.

    In the end though SEO is slightly guessing how smart the search engine algorithms are, one might for instance assume that Google has some sort of consideration of grading an HTML4 markup page vs HTML5. Since HTML5 is more recent, it's likely to get some leverage over HTML4 markup since HTML4 is outdated.