Semantics and the Web

Semantics is defined as the implied meaning of a subject, like a word or sentence. It is a aid to how humans and even machines interpret subject matter. HTML achieves this by enclosing different content in different HTML tags. Semantic elements cleary describe the meaning to both the browser and the developer. There are a variety of different semantic markups that are used but I’m just going to go through a few of the basics and tell what they do.

• h1: this is used a tthe top of each page, article or section to identify its purpose. The “h” stands for header and h1 is the largest of the group so should be reserved for the top of the page.
• h2 and h3: show the structure of the document. IF there is an outline these are what you use to demonstrate the main point of the sections.
• p: indicates a new paragraph and creates a space to type your information.
• ul, ol and li: All are used when it comes to list. ul stands for unordered list and creates bullet points where-as ol stands for ordered list and numbers the items. li stands for list item and is what you use to define when a new item for the list starts and ends.
• These are a few of the main semantics that will need to be used when constructing a website. There are many more such as: table – which creates a table, b – which bolds the text, or center – which centers the object within it.

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