h1, h2, h3

[TheFilmGod]

Is it a good idea to simply use h1, h2, h3, etc. without any styling to simply show importance (headings). Would it make it more semantic?

[SuperBlue]

Is it a good idea to simply use h1, h2, h3, etc. without any styling to simply show importance (headings). Would it make it more semantic?

 

No, but its a good idea to use headings; With or without styling dosent really matter for semantic, as long as they are placed semanticly correct.

 

 

However, It is important to style your headings, there are alot of usability websites overlooking the need for "look and feel".

If your site is a wall of text, with unstyled everything, you will lose visitors, because the overall usability is suffering.

 

Also Some usability websites tend to totally overdo the problem, ending up being more in-accessible then the website they judge. Theres alot of things to considre when chosing a layout, the main question to be answered is "what is the purpose of the site"; When the purpose is known, it might be fine to use unstyled, or limitied styling in the documents, if the ducument is going to be printed. And/or if you have limited time to create and maintain a printer friendly version.

 

 

But for semanticly correct use; You could use h1 for either page title, or headlines in articles/news on your page. Usually the page title or logo, is a image. That leaves us with the headlines of articles/news, or even headlines in user submitted content.

 

I usually use h1 tags for the title of my articles, and h2 tags for the different  sections of a articles and user submitted content, finally i use h3 tags for menu headings. I think that this makes the most sense, since i consider my menu headings to be less important then my article section headings.

 

I think the idea is, not to use a h2 headline before a h1 headline. Or use a h1 and then a h3 headline.