HTML is often misunderstood as a visual language. In reality, HTML is about meaning, not appearance. It is the semantic blueprint of the web, a structured description of what content is, not how it looks.
Semantic HTML elements such as <header>, <nav>, <main>, <section>, <article>, and <footer> give context to content. They tell browsers, search engines, screen readers, and other tools why a piece of content exists and how it relates to everything else on the page.
When developers ignore semantics and rely heavily on <div> elements, the page may look fine visually, but it becomes fragile:
Screen readers struggle to navigate it
Search engines lose clarity on content hierarchy
CSS becomes bloated with unnecessary selectors
Maintenance becomes painful over time
Proper structure improves SEO, accessibility, performance, and developer sanity. A well-structured HTML document can be read and understood even without CSS, which is the ultimate test of semantic correctness
