You’ve probably been hearings about Html 5 which began being adopted by web developers a couple of years ago…
What is Html 5 and how is it different from today’s version of html?
The last version of Html (4.01) was launched in 1999 so this new introduction, a collaboration between the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) is long overdue. Html 5 is the newest html standard and includes microdata markup language for structuring and displaying web content. Html 5 also improves the rendering of applications by browsers across desktops, mobile tablets and smartphones. And since iOS (Apple’s mobile-based operating system) does not support flash, Html 5 is an important leap forward for sites receiving inbound traffic from iOS devices (ipads, iphones). Many CMS developers including WordPress and other open source solutions have moved already or will move soon toward inclusion of Html 5 in their coding practices.
Why should you care about Html 5?
Among the new features in Html 5 are new content identification elements (<article>, <footer>, <header>, <nav>, <section>, <audio>, <video>) which help structure web content by “type”. And by adding Html 5 microdata markup to your web content, you can also highlight reviews, people profiles, or events which allows Google improve the presentation of your pages in Google search results via rich snippets.
So Html 5 can impact the visibility of your content to search engines and visibility to users who search for related content via rich snippets. So while using Html 5 won’t impact your search engine rankings today, it may help you get increased organic traffic and click through rates as your content becomes more prominent to searchers. And that’s a good thing!