Web pages are not programs, they are a compilation of html tags that browsers interpret and create web pages from. These tags are not a programming language, they are simply methods of setting ‘parameters’ within the web page browsers; they are a series of instructions to the browser program that are interpreted by the browser to create the look, functionality and content of the web page.
An example of this parameter setting would be the font size, or what the title says, or the background color, etc. In the early years of web page design the lack of sophistication of the browser severely restricted what could be done, and essentially the design of a web page at that time was a collection of doorways that you would navigate through, once you found the site that is! This meant that the design of the navigation of the site was a critical part of the design effectiveness.
The web, and in particular web browsers, has developed considerably since then, and although many alternative methods exist for creating web pages for browsers to interpret, such as Flash based sites, JavaScript, PHP or .NET and the development of xhtml, the most influential aspect that has shaped web design is not any of these browser or browser language developments, it is the development of search engine optimization algorithms. This single development, the most rapidly developed part of the web since its inception, has pushed web design into a contextual world of development.
The most recent web designs are building on this revolution to develop methods that can shape your browsing experience according to your browser history, but even with all this sophistication at hand the importance of html tags is still considerable in at least one respect: Titles.
Search engines have transformed the web because they transformed the way the user found your site. Originally the ‘landing page’ was akin to the front door of your house: the entranceway would say much about who you are and your philosophical stance, and web pages did that too. The point of the company would be stated ‘up front’ and all the corresponding information would lead from that passageway. This is certainly not essential practice now.
Figuratively speaking search engines now bring people in through the back door, side windows and even the cellar. A search engine bot crawler will find pages within a site that will be directly relevant to the search terms and clicking on that link will take the user directly to that page; no more front door introductions, no more statement of philosophy or intent; now every page is treated as a mini web site!
The search engine bots do this using a varying and it seems ever-changing algorithm of techniques, but a constant in that repertoire is the html title page tag. This is a tag that denotes the title to the page, and will format the title accordingly, and because the title of a page is usually relevant to the content of the page (beware cryptic titles!) the search engines will rank the words in it very highly. It seems that for all the sophistication of browser languages being developed now, HTML still ‘rules’!
