Monday morning, 6 clock, holiday - the best conditions in order to devote myself again a detailed blog post. In recent weeks, it has unfortunately become a bit quiet here, but the launch phase of the CMS focus unfortunately demands everything from me. So it's good that there are holidays like these. :)

The topic for today's article came to me about two weeks ago on the screen when I by  Christian an interview. A Christian asked me the question was: " Have you able to incorporate into the new HTML5 fast? ". The issue I found was already difficult because the concept behind HTML5 depends not an exact definition. The legacy of HTML4 is clear from many motley new web technologies - although some of course are far more important than others.

I replied Christian, therefore, that it is the new HTML5 elements like me especially footer, header or section have done. In this article I would like to once again enter into detail on why this is so and what benefits the HTML5 elements for search engine optimization to bring.

Why could the HTML5 elements for Google & Co. make sense?

I say at this point just once, Google is relatively resistant to hype things algorithm. Although it may appear to some, due to the introduction of the +1 button differently, I do not think that Google made the search algorithm seeks short term but sustainable indexing of content. I draw also concluded that Web sites in the Google SERPS not automatically get a better ranking if the doctype of the document is delivered with XHTML1.0 HTML5 instead.

To understand how a search engine works on-site basis, you can even do the following: Open a web browser and weighted on the basis of the contents of visual design. Then you open the source code of the corresponding Web page and attempts to weigh the contents of the source code at hand. Not so easy, right?

Exactly with such problems, propose search engines like Google around since time immemorial. Course work in business, California with the smartest IT minds in the world and, of course, complex algorithms have been developed over the years that are exactly make this weighting.

The key question in this case, however, can the search engine to manually review content of the source text exactly like a human hand on the visual presentation of the website? I'm not saying - at least not without HTML5!

Semantics - the eyes of the search engine

Let's first look at the rough at which HTML elements are new additions to the fifth version of the markup language. There would, for example, header, footer, details, aside, section, article , or nav .

These elements have the advantage over the classical div -element all together a decisive advantage: they classify, evaluate and declare the contents to be borne! The (technical) technical term for this is semantics ...

To understand why semantics for computers in general, and search engine crawlers is so important in particular, one has to make clear what information will be included. Man weighted content on a website largely on a visual level. A text which has a higher font size and contrast level, he know how to for example a larger value. The tiny footer information, however, he will perceive only in the rarest of cases. Thus, the web designer can prepare content for the people and at the same weight.

Although Google and now can already read well with CSS security, they have it much harder. The programmers need to develop algorithms that assess the content to hand the underlying source code legends. And these technologies are as accurate as possible access to any website -. A difficult task 

precisely for this reason also previously played headings such a big role in the on-site search engine optimization . We were informed by the search engines that the content between the two <h1> tags is very important. For this, Google has not only run complex algorithms on the page to see the title, but can be absolutely certain - because the declaration is indeed directly from the developer.

Here comes the menu, here is the sidebar ...

And exactly this principle was followed in HTML5. There were added new (more semantic) elements, carry the content and automatically carry out a weighting.

So you can specify, for example, when it comes to the head area or the sidebar. You can specify where the main navigation menu or the footer is located. Everything points that you could tell just before the visitor on a visual level, but not the search engine.

In my view, the advantages of the new HTML5 elements in search engine optimization on hand. Although there are certainly thousands of algorithms, an accurate declaration of the developer can be replaced by any algorithm. Otherwise, the h1 element would not be so damn important for search engines!

The most important elements in HTML5 Overview

I would like to conclude today's blog post with a small overview of the major new HTML5 elements. By means of some small hacks and tricks ( coming in the next article ), the elements can already use in any browser (even IE6) perfect. Give it a try, subjectively I've done so far very good experience in on-site SEO with HTML5 elements.

header

Declares the header section of a website. Here you could for example place the h1 heading, a logo and navigation.

footer

The footer element defines the bottom of the page. In the foot are usually final information about the author or the website, which are not directly related to the actual content.

nav

An element to mark up the navigation. Whether one then a ul element opens or equal to the links placed matter. I personally would the nav element, however, use only in the main navigation.

section

This HTML5 element is very important, that it differentiates between different area within the website and can be used repeatedly. For example, two content areas to separate them.

article

The article element is perfectly suited to directly distinguish the main content. In the case of a blog, for example, it would immediately embrace the article text.

aside

If we again come back to the blog, could be the aside element, for example a sidebar realize. The content of the element does not match the actual content of the website.

Details

The HTML5 element details declared additional information about a topic. In some browsers, this content is already hidden by default and must first be displayed with a click.