Website semantics
Semantics are the study of meaning. Comprehension if you like. A website must convey a message to the user and the pages must deliver the information in the manner they were meant.
In speech, we can apply tone and meaning by adjusting our pitch, volume and using facial expressions, something the internet is unable to even closely match.
How do we use semantics to convey information?
The HTML language is a rich markup language that allows us to wrap text in certain tags to give them meaning. What tends to happen is design overrides correct markup which goes against the point of the website. Sure, it must be attractive, but a website should be marked up correctly, then styled to present the information in an attractive way.
The most popular mistakes made are when using headers such as <H1> or <H3>. Headers should be marked as headers, not styled to look like them. If the headers are in place, assistive devices can navigate the document more efficiently and search engines can effectively summarise content.
Italics and bold are another area that cause confusion. If it’s a style decision to make the text look italic, the by all means use CSS, but if you need to emphasise a point and highlight a phrase, use the appropriate markup to do so.
The importance of semantics
By using the markup language correctly, using bold and italic tags to emphasise phrases, we can assist comprehension of the resource. Using styles only correctly convey the right message if you can see. People screen reading, or a search engine for that matter, will have a better understanding of what you mean if you employ semantics.
This can affect accessibility because if something isn’t understood by somebody, they haven’t correctly accessed the information.
How can TN38 Consulting help?
We can audit your website to check for semantic mistakes, per page focus, spelling and grammatical errors. This ensures your website is comprehensive, clear, and correctly meets the markets requirements. If you wish to find out more about semantics, please contact us for more information.