Heading Elements, Semantics, and the XHTML template
In the XHTML template that has been proposed to the UW Web Steering Committee there is a recommended document structure that bascially goes like this:
- Header 1 is the department title in the top left-ish area and currently is an image in the template.
- Header 2 is the ‘title related to left nav’ which doesn’t have to show up on every page and it doesn’t on the home page… it is just an option.
- Header 3 is the top level in the content.
- Header 4 is the top level for the right column and can be used in the content area.
- Header 5 to whatever is for document structure at the content creators preference.
Basically what happens now is that Header 1 and 2 are not to appear in the content. I realize that could cause some difficulty with the few people that are actually using H1 and H2 in their content right now and I don’t think there is anything wrong with using the H1 and H2 in the content. In Heading Elements, Semantics and the Spec according to Andy Budd, I think, H1 and H2 used as they are is fine.. and using H1 as your first content header is probably better.
If you go through the comments and the article, there are some interesting points brought up. With a University web space how do you approach it? Is each department and faculty a volume of the larger book collection or a chapter? Or are academic support departments (Registrar, etc) a chapter of the University of Waterloo site, Each Faculty a volume and departments within the Faculties a chapter of those volumes? You could really get into splitting hairs and pulling them out if you tried to classify this place.
How would I apply it here?
My thought is this: Each site is folder that collects many stand alone documents under a general heading that should be structured as proper documents. This will help search engines rank pages at UW better and ultimately help the people that are looking for information on your web site. That is not to say you should not approach each page with the thought ‘is this a document or a series of pages within a larger document?’
Which I think means that if a page is a document in itself then it should be structured with H1 as the most important header in the document, then H2, H3, etc. If it is a collection of pages that are part of a larger document than the only page that should have a H1 is the first in the series. I am not 100% sure that makes any sense. I am very interested in hearing thoughts on the topic.