Paragraph Tags or Not?

Never used to use <p> tags but recently started to on my new sites as I know it does eliminate the need for spaces and <b> tags etc but does it make a difference SEO wise?

I'm just asking as I'd like to know if it's worth going back on my old sites and paragraphin' everything...

Cheers.

 

Doesn't really make a difference. I prefer using <p> tags personally as you've got more control in your css.

 

yeah, it is one of the most standard tags.

 

I know it's a standard tag my question was whether it made a difference in terms of SEO

 

I think it does make a difference. You should put a header in <h> tags then <p> tags after.

Its best if the text in the<p> tags contain words from the <h> tags.

 

Yeh I obviously use header tags but I was never sure whether paragraphing text made any difference.

 

Yes they do if they are relevant to the header tags. Thats what im trying to say.

 

<p></p> is a paragraph tag pair and should be used to mark up paragraphs, just as H1, H2, H3 (and so on through H6) are headings, and should be used to mark up headings (hint - they do NOT belong in menus)... speaking of menus, a menu is just a list of links, so an unordered list (I like to give my menu list an ID of "menu") would be the most appropriate.

It's all about semantics. Use the HTML code that is most appropriate for marking up that section of the page, and to Hell with what the search engine abusers think.

 

I learned to use the <p> tags, so i use the quite alot. But they are very much so pointless..

 

They are not pointless. They define a block of text content as a paragraph. If you're going to suggest they're pointless, I strongly suggest you learn how semantics apply to (X)HTML before doing ANYTHING else.

 

They have a much greater importance when you start using accessability tools as they define the flow of the site. Humans looking at a page can see how different elements relate to each other by their layout, colour, weight, size etc but accessability tools that can simply use the code will not know if a large piece of text is simply a word to be stressed as important or if it is actually a header to signify that the text is moving on to another point. Stick it in a <p> tag and it becomes a stressed word, stick it in a <h> tag and it is a header.

 

i would think the se advantage comes from the paragraphs having the same words as in the header giving the SE's food for thought and what the page is about... but I really doubt either way that will make or break you in any real way for SE ranking...

i wouldn't go back and change my old sites though... too much work for im sure very little gain

 

You're forgetting the semantics of the Web page then. A "P" element is used to mark up a paragraph of text (like the paragraphs you had to write in your essays during high school and/or college/university). A heading is just used to declare what the content below it will be about.

For example, Second Life (and a bunch of other sites, including CraigsList) went offline yesterday due to a series of power outages in San Fransisco. The headings on the articles stated that power outages were responsible for the sites being offline, and the paragraphs (the actual page content) went into detail about it,and how Second Life even said that the problem wasn't on their end, but that major sites (like CraigsList) were offline as well, and thanked everyone for their concerns and appreciation of Second Life (genius marketing if you ask me).

Gee, and who'd have thought those English (or whatever your native language is) and writing classes in school would actually pay off and mean something?