HTML5 – Good or Bad?

Have you heard about HTML5, and are unsure what it means? You wouldn’t be the first, and you won’t be the last. Considering the shifting nature of SEO, it’s more important than ever to be aware of anything that can significantly impact it. With that in mind, here is a quick primer on the benefits of HTML5 and potential drawbacks.

Benefits

HTML5 is a language designed for Web 2.0 and all the content that comes with it. We’ve all had problems with flash plugins before, but HTML5 will solve a lot of these issues by removing the need for plugins. This means your website will run faster, and it will make including multimedia content all that easier.
The code itself will be much cleaner, and easier for designers to work with. This might seem insignificant from an SEO point of view, but anything that makes producing high quality websites easier is a bonus.
Finally HTML5 has geolocation support which has the potential to offer a lot of new location-based SEO opportunities.

Drawbacks

The biggest drawback of HTML5 is that it’s not supported by older versions of Internet Explorer. To a tech savvy person this might not seem like a big deal, but large swathes of public still use older IE versions. This means they could have problems running elements on your website using HTML5. The second biggest drawback is the fact the language itself is still considered a work in progress, and it could potentially be changed in the future.

The Final Word

The decision to use HTML5 on your website should be made with care, but it’s undeniable that it’s the future of the internet. Despite a few minor drawbacks, HTML5 has a bright future ahead and I can’t wait to see what it makes possible.