Google searches us for the answers
Posted: Thursday 28 October, 2010
James Ryder
Part of my day job is based onsite, not at client's offices but, in their code. I'm as close as it gets to a code monkey in the Punch team and this week questions have been asked about HTML5.
HTML5 is the next big thing, or so we're told. It's being touted as a flash killer, the kind of fighting talk that gets people interested. It should make coding pages for SEO more enjoyable and make it easier for developers to add interactive elements.
Making SEO more enjoyable? Wow. Well, the new elements of HTML5 will certainly make things easier. The XML-like structure should assist code cleanliness and aid structure. The addition of the article element should simplify content categorization on sites that article heavy like blogs and news sites. There's a new header tag that allows for multiple elements to be contained within. Now we're starting to have fun...
Before I get carried away though and declare onsite SEO conquered there's one very big thing to consider - Google. We all presumed that search engines would immediately love HTML5 as much as we do already. With its cleanlines and semantically superior mark-up how could the GoogleBot not be infatuated?
It seems that Google wants to learn to love it. Earlier this month JohnMu on Google webmaster central posted that Google would take its lead from the web. They, would see how we, start to use HTML5 (and its new elements)and then calculate its relevance as a ranking factor. As HTML5 gains inpopularity and they start to recognise the elements in use, we will then see what relevance it has to SEO in the real world.
For once in SEO terms, it looks like tail, may get to wag the dog
