Semantic HTML

Semantic HTML is the methodology of formatting your web page with markup which helps your browser and search engines to understand the intention of words versus their presentation.  This also helps with the presentation of your website.  Once you have a style sheet that you are happy with, you pages will maintain a consistent, professional look across all areas.

To boldly go where no man has gone before

Bold and italics tags are two of the most commonly misused tags.  In newer revisions of html, bold and italic have been renamed to strong and emphasis respectively, which give a better understanding of their intended use.  Bold should be used for things which are very important.  Italics should be used for words which are distinguished in a sentence, but which aren't necessarily being "shouted" about. 

Do not confuse these tags with the stylesheet of your site.  If you want the text face of a page to be bold, then this can be adjusted via the style sheet without affecting the markup.

When to use headings

Headings should be used to emphasize a new section.  Each heading level represents a sub section of the previous one (for sub topics of the main heading).  Search engines pick up on headings as key topics of a page; using them for things other than their intended purpose can affect your site's rating for the worse.

Format Examples