HTML5. It’s one of the hottest buzzwords in the world of web development and design. But what exactly is HTML5, and why is everyone making such a fuss about it? HTML5 has been around since about 2008, but it really started to generate buzz when Steve Jobs openly cursed the use of Flash and told the world that it would never be allowed on Apple’s devices. Since then, HTML5 has pretty much become the standard for any mobile development, and it’s on its way to becoming the standard for HTML development in general.

If you’re curious about HTML5 and adopting it for your own online content, check out these 5 reasons why you should be using HTML5 today.

Accessibility

Accessibility may not be at the top of your list when designing web content, but it should be. More than ever before, people are using screen readers to access information online. HTML5 uses tags like <header>, <nav>, and <footer> to describe sections of code. Could these be any more straightforward? Free yourself from the <div> tag, and you can make content more descriptive and easier for screen readers to scan.

Mobile Compatibility

Compatibility… it is every web designer’s worst nightmare. However, with HTML5, life gets a lot easier for designers to create content across multiple platforms. Particularly when it comes to mobile design, HTML5 is a lifesaver because it’s compatible with Apple, Android, Windows, and more.

Video

Long gone are the days of Flash and other media players. With the addition of <video> and <audio> tags, HTML5 offers a simple way to add media without huge chunks of confusing code or additional plugins. Without all that extra code, video is more likely to play correctly.

SEO

Yes, it’s true: SEO can be improved by using HTML5. This is partly because HTML5 goes hand in hand with CSS3. Before CSS3, written content had a tendency to get lost in code – particularly when it was text embedded in an image. Search engines saw much less text on pages than human readers because of this. CSS3 changed all of that. CSS3, when used in conjunction with HTML5, stylizes text content while still allowing it to be visible to search engines.

Furthermore, many of the reasons that make HTML5 great for accessibility make it great for SEO. More descriptive tags, media capabilities, and reduced code will make your website easier for search engines to crawl, and contribute to better SERP.

It’s the Future 

Despite being great for SEO, accessibility, media etc., the number one reason to start using HTML5 for web content is this: it is the future of web design. Don’t get left behind. Because HTML5 is new, it gets a hard time for being ‘experimental’ and a bit of a ‘buzzword,’ but there is no doubt that it will soon become the web design standard. As it continues to grow and evolve, more and more companies will start developing in HTML5.

If you’re considering a redesign of your website or starting on a new design project, I highly suggest that you take full advantage of what HTML5 has to offer. There are plenty of resources available to help you start learning HTML5, and using it will help your online presence stay ahead of the curve.

A few helpful resources for HTML5 development:

Useful Tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/html5/

Mozilla Developer Network: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/html/html5/

HTML5 Resources: http://www.html5rocks.com/

Image courtsey of HTML5 ROCKS