HTML5: Changing 'section' content to be 'main' for better SEO relevance?

[mirabile]

We received an HTML5 recommendation that we should change onpage text copy contained in 'section" to be listed in 'main' instead, because this is supposedly better for SEO.

We're questioning the need to ask developers spend time on this purely for a perceived SEO benefit.  Sure, maybe content in 'footer' may be seen as less relevant, but calling out 'section' as having less relevance than 'main'?

Yes, it's true that engines evaluate where onpage content is located, but this level of granular focus seems unnecessary.  That being said, more than happy to be corrected if there is actually a benefit.

On a side note, 'main' isn't supported by older versions of IE and could cause browser incompatibilities (http://caniuse.com/#feat=html5semantic).

Would love to hear others' feedback about this - thanks!

[renehansen]

I wouldn't change it. The benefit of sacrifising browser support is minimal to none.

I would instead focus on decreasing load speed, creating better content or looking at schema markup (if it is relevant).

What is the URL?

[mirabile]

Totally agree- so many other better things to spend time on than this, which is why my knee-jerk reaction is to push back on the recommendation.  However, little has been written or documented about this so checking in forums in case there's any other feedback.

As for browser support - older versions of IE barely seem to support anything... but still!

[renehansen]

Sure, I haven't heard of read about any impact in terms of SEO. I do hope that the new browser from MS can keep up with the expectations! Just let IE die already

You could also try stackoverflow.com and get a more technical aspect of the HTML5 tag and what it could mean in terms of structure and faster code.