What are web semantics?

Semantics refers to adding meaning through language and on the web, that translates to using specific languages and syntaxes to add meaning to content.

It’s an incredibly important part of the modern web and can have a huge impact on the effectiveness of your sites.

If we start with the very basics, web semantics allow us to control the organisation and display of our content.

Although each site is unique, certain conventions have evolved over time in the commonly recognised page elements.

Most pages, for example, contain some form of navigation, search capability, branding region, footer and main content.

By using consistent semantic markup to identify these common elements, we make it easy for user agents to identify and properly present those elements to viewers.

This may seem trivial, but in some cases, such as with assistive technology, identifying content semantically is critical to ensuring functionality and providing easy access to page content.

Semantics can help in other ways as well. A huge part of the success of the web has been the rise in the way content is accessed and shared.