Must I use the <P> Tag?

Is the first sentence of a "paragraph" more important to Google?

[delsartm]

Hello!

I have a question about the <P> tag : I never use it on my web site and I wonder if I should.

I have read that the first sentence of a "paragraph" is important and I wonder if by that, it means a paragraph between <P> and </P> tag.

What do you think?

[Sally Stitts]

I have wondered about this too.
My ancient HTML editor (which I love) does undesired things with <p> tags (and other tags).
So, I usually just use <br> tags instead. Based upon your question, could this be bad?

Anybody else?

[digitalv]

I never use the <p></p> tags and have a Google PageRank of 8, and Alexa PageRank of under 100,000 - so it doesn't seem to be causing any problems with seach engines or anything.

I can accomplish the same thing with <BR><BR>

I do all of my HTML in textpad though, WYSIWYG editors are notorious for over-using HTML. I also use CSS instead of <font></font> tags since it makes the HTML cleaner and generally easier to read by the search engines.

[mipapage]

You don't have to, but some would say you should.

Semantics... It's all about understanding a document!

<h1> says "maintopic" <h2> says subtopic, <p>says "paragraph"; user agents get this, bots are user agents.

For more of an incentive, have a read of the first post here [webmasterworld.com].

---

Google PageRank of 8, and Alexa PageRank of under 100,000

Neither of those have anything to do with how a user agent understands your code. I could have a page with nothing but the letter "k" on it using no markup whatsoever and get those results.

[AjiNIMC]

The basics says key phrase near the start of <p> will get an extra weight but I guess google has come a long way from there. Now what matters is a optimized mix of all the old practices.

Aji

[richlowe]

This brings one to a discussion about how much markup is needed on the web. After all, text documents look fine in all browsers. They are just text, but they work fine.

Some would say (I tend towards this class) you should have validating, xhtml 1.1 code using css to format everything. Others would say text files are fine, or perhaps html 2.0 or 3.2.

It's really up to you, the the decision should be based upon your goals. What do you want to accomplish on the web?

If your question is: will the lack of valid markup (html code) hurt my search engine rankings? My personal experience is that search engines couldn't care less. Others on this board have different opinions.

Richard

[mipapage]

Fwiw - I see it this way:
If your question is: will the lack of meaningful markup (html code) hurt my search engine rankings? My personal experience is leaning towards the yes side.

[HarryM]

I have read that the first sentence of a "paragraph" is important

Most paras written for the web are short, often consisting of only one sentence, so I doubt if any search engine puts any weight on this.

I rarely use P tags. I set the font at the div level, or a span, and use <br /><br /> to create new paras. Less code and must be easier to render.

IMHO the P tag was useful in the days when the internet was just used to send text information. The P tag copied the format of commercial letters with a blank line between paras. The <br /> tag is more flexible and suited to a varied layout.

[edit_g]

<br /><br /> isn't less code - it's more. <p></p> is all you need... What's the big deal about not using <p> tags anyhow? If you use them you can set margin, padding and line-height for your Paragraphs as well. You can also have borders around them etc.

<edit> why is this in the Google forum anyhow?</edit>

[jkmitchell]

You need to consider the viewing public, especially those with 'special needs' such as talking browsers etc.

I haven't got the details or software in front of me but I'm pretty sure that some non-IE/Netscape browsers display differently if there is no <p> tags.

Cheers

John

[ciml]

Personally, I don't see Google giving a bonus to words in the first part of a paragraph, or even the first part of the page.

<mod note: let's stick to the Google issue (whether the first sentence in a <p>paragraph</p> is important for rankings). The interesting HTML issues belong over here [webmasterworld.com]>

[g1smd]

Hmm, that was a pointer to a forum, not to one continuation thread.

A valid HTML document, between <body>...</body>, consists of headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, and forms.

[HarryM]

To get back to the original topic, it is sometimes postulated that the text closest to the header carried the most weight with Google. I suspect that the idea that the text closest to the P tag carries most weight in a para is a spin off from this. I have never seen any evidence that either is true.

And even if it was true, in this volatile world, it might not be true tomorrow.

Off topic: a valid HTML document is a document that validates. Choice of tags has nothing to do with it.

[g1smd]

Code fragment:

... <body> hello </body> ... does not validate in XHTML.

but ... <body> <p>hello</p> </body> ... does.

A container is needed for the content.