Does HTML structure matter for SEO?

In case you missed the latest podcast episode of Search Off the Document, Google’s Gary Ilyes stirred up some controversy when he made a remark about HTML construction not mattering a lot for SEO.

He later clarified on Linkedin that “not mattering a lot” doesn’t imply “doesn’t matter in any respect.” Nonetheless, that didn’t cease any of the web optimization controversy.

Being unable to keep away from controversy, I couldn’t assist however bounce in – in an try and make clear just a few widespread factors and misconceptions I maintain seeing pop up.

So, does HTML construction matter for web optimization? 

The reply is: It relies upon. 

When Illyes was speaking about HTML construction, he was possible referring to a number of the issues SEOs prefer to obsess about:

• The variety of H1 tags on a web page.
• The order of H tags.
• Whether or not one thing is a <b> or a <robust> tag.
• Using tables versus CSS for styling.
• How excessive up within the supply code textual content seems. 

These are all issues I’ve seen SEOs talk about over time, and whereas a few of them mattered within the outdated days of web optimization, that’s not how issues work anymore.

Earlier than diving into when HTML does and doesn’t matter for web optimization, we have to get some caveats out. 

HTML construction 100% nonetheless issues for accessibility. 

Accessibility is just not a direct rating issue, although, so it’s a bit exterior the scope of this text.

I’ll observe, as others identified on X, that in case your website isn’t accessible, it’s much less possible individuals will hyperlink to it or click on on it sooner or later, in order that can probably have an effect on your web optimization rankings.

The recently updated Google SEO Starter Guide even particularly mentions heading tags and accessibility vs. web optimization:

“Having your headings in semantic order is improbable for display readers, however from Google Search perspective, it doesn’t matter in case you’re utilizing them out of order. The net generally is just not legitimate HTML, so Google Search can not often rely upon semantic meanings hidden within the HTML specification.

There’s additionally no magical, ideally suited quantity of headings a given web page ought to have. Nonetheless, in case you suppose it’s an excessive amount of, then it most likely is.”

However what about the remainder of HTML construction?

The primary subject right here is our psychological mannequin of how search engines work. For most individuals, that mannequin hasn’t modified because the ‘90s when search engines like google have been principally all lexical search. That’s to say, discovering the doc with essentially the most mentions of the time period. 

These search engines like google had scoring features that gave further weight to occurrences of the time period in daring and counted an H1 greater than an H2, and so on.

Sadly for our psychological mannequin, search has moved away from the lexical strategy and extra towards a semantic approach.

In semantic search, the content material is transformed to vectors and algorithms like BERT, RankBrain, and so on., are used to interpret the “which means” of the question and the content material, not simply taking a look at what phrases it comprises. Within the strategy of changing the content material to vectors, many of the HTML is misplaced. 

It’s not simply vectors that come into play right here but in addition rendering. Earlier than search engines like google might render JavaScript and study the DOM, they needed to depend on HTML hints – however these days are gone.

Simply as they’ll use algorithms like passage-bert to establish essentially the most related snippet on the web page, they’ll additionally use numerous algorithms to find out the primary heading – even when it’s not within the <h1> tag. 

Certain, <h1> is a touch right here – however so is font measurement, placement related to the content material, and the precise sentence itself. We’ve all seen so many SEOs mark up a tiny little bit of the navigation with an H1 regardless of having an enormous 30-point textual content in the course of the display that’s only a <span> tag. 

Within the outdated days, search engines like google would battle right here, however today, they’ll most of the time appropriately establish that enormous <span> tag because the “heading” of the web page. 

That doesn’t imply you shouldn’t use correct H tags and nested parts. Keep in mind, accessibility nonetheless issues to offer the major search engines a touch. It’ll be cleaner, simpler, extra accessible and simply general higher in case you do it. I’m simply saying search engines like google aren’t caught to counting on the markup.

One other false impression is the a number of H1 tags. That is considered one of my largest pet peeves.

With the introduction of HTML5 and numerous parts, it’s fully regular (and, in some accessibility circumstances, required) to have a number of H1 tags on a web page. This isn’t one thing that may have an effect on your web optimization efforts. (Except you’re key phrase stuffing and marking up all the pieces as an H1, which can journey some spam flags.)

So, what does a search engine do? (I’ll over-simplify right here as I might go in-depth on data retrieval and would love to do this over beers anytime.)

Merely put:

• They may detect the title tag, key headings (that will or might not be H1, H2, and so on), and physique copy.
• They’ll then run each lexical (e.g., BM25) and semantic (e.g., cosine similarity) measures to find out these sections’ relevance to the question earlier than feeding all of them right into a machine studying algorithm and ranker. 

The takeaway is that they almost definitely not actually care if it’s an H1 or H2 – simply that their algorithm recognized it as a “heading” of the web page. 

The identical goes for daring textual content, span and div tags, and so on. It’s all about whether or not the algorithm (e.g., BERT) says it’s related to the question. 

So, the place does HTML construction matter? 

HTML construction can truly make or break your web optimization technique in a lot of situations. For instance, placing your canonical tag within the <physique> as a substitute of the <head> received’t get seen. 

Likewise, in case you put a <div> in your <head> tag, then Googlebot’s model of Chrome will assume you forgot to shut the pinnacle and begin the physique and do it for you, probably transferring a few of your essential web optimization tags into the physique the place they are going to be ignored. 

You received’t consider how typically I see this. It simply takes one individual to unintentionally paste code into the flawed place in Google Tag Supervisor to interrupt your complete website. For that reason alone, I inform purchasers to verify their web optimization tags are all greater up within the <head> than another tags.

Different HTML coding methods can hurt web optimization, too.

For instance, if as a substitute of utilizing an <a> tag with href attribute, your website has a <span> with an onclick= occasion, search engines like google won’t depend that as a hyperlink, despite the fact that customers received’t inform the distinction. It’s acquired some accessibility points, too, so please cease doing that.

In relation to photos, search engines like google require an <img> tag with a src= attribute. You’d be shocked what number of lazy loading plugins omit the src= in favor of srcset=, which, as of my newest testing, works in trendy browsers however isn’t handled as an “picture” by Google for picture rating. 

I don’t suppose any of those examples have been what Illyes meant when he talked about HTML construction. I consider he was referencing the widespread arguments of heading nesting, daring tags, and so on. 

TL;DR

Ought to I fear about my use of H1s, H2s and so on?

Sure, all the time, however not for web optimization. Mark stuff up in a means that’s accessible and is sensible for customers. Don’t stress over forcing in that <h1> tag that’s styled to seem like common textual content. 

Ought to I validate my HTML?

Sure, however not for web optimization rankings. Legitimate HTML isn’t a rating issue, however it is going to assist stop technical points affecting web optimization and probably reduce your accessibility work. I’m an enormous fan of the W3C Validator. 

Does HTML construction matter for web optimization?

It relies upon. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!) In case your markup causes stuff to be inaccessible or not seen, sure, it issues a ton. In the event you’re hoping to get a rating enhance by re-ordering some headings or bolding some textual content, it’s possible not going to occur.