Structured Markup

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You may hear me use the word "semantic" quite a bit throughout this book. I may also use the term "structured markup" at times as well. They are interchangeable. What I mean when I talk about semantics is that we're striving to use tags that imply meaning, rather than a presentational instruction. Are you dealing with a list of items? Then mark it up as such. Is this a table of data? Then structure it that way.

By structuring web pages with semantic markup, we'll move closer to separating content from presentation and, in turn, our pages will have a better chance of being understood properly—the way you intend them to be—by a wider variety of browsers and devices.

As I had mentioned earlier, historically web designers have relied on nesting tables with spacer graphics to achieve pixel-precise layouts. The <table> element was used to map out every component of a web page, adding an enormous amount of unnecessary code—not to mention resulting pages that are practically unreadable for those browsing with text browsers, small-screened devices, or assistive software. The bloat was (and is) choking the Web.

Throughout the chapters of this book, I'll explain how semantic markup helps pages become leaner, more accessible, and easily styled with CSS.

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