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So I'm a self taught web developer but have only been doing it for a little over a year. Therefore, compared to other people, I'm still pretty new to the field. I had a quick question for those of you out there familiar with wordpress and html5. I was wondering why it was hard for me to find, highend, paid wordpress themes that utilized the more semantic html5 tags such as article and section instead of the typical, div class = "section", setup. Take a look at this paid theme for example, which upon inspection makes use of the header and nav tags but not article, section and aside tags:

http://demo.hb-themes.com/?theme=Highend

I've seen a bunch of others they looked the same. My main question is am I wrong to judge these sites for not using the basic html5 tags mentioned above? I thought these tags were important in giving google and other search engines more semantic code to look through. The reason I ask is I'm considering purchasing a wordpress theme for now so that I can get my site up on the internet quickly while in the meantime develop my own design for the future. I do not want to pay for a theme that is not up to standards, if those standards are relevant today. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you.

Jason
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You can not add css to html5 selectors without relying on html5shiv or modernizr. Too many people are still using old browsers and, in my opinion, the Internet is not ready websites that only use the html5 tags. By using "div class='section'" you increase the cross browser compatibility.

HTML5 is great for sectioning content but an html4 with Aria roles and proper use of header tags will still gets the job done. If you are concerned about search rankings, just make sure your website is fast loading, responsive, and has good content.

Cory M
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  • So do you believe then that using html5shiv and/or modernizr slow down page load speed to much? Or what is the disadvantage(s) to using either html5shiv or modernizr? – Jason Nov 12 '15 at 23:24
  • No it doesn't slow down the page load speeds too much. There's lots of articles comparing html5shiv and modernizr. – Cory M Nov 12 '15 at 23:33
  • So do you think it's better to be more semantic and use these tags with html5 shiv or modernizr ? Or go the old route? Even when wanting backward compatibility – Jason Nov 12 '15 at 23:52
  • When purchasing a WordPress template for a small business or personal use, I wouldn't stress too much about meeting the most current web standards. Instead, it will be more valuable if you focus on the content and usability of the site. – Cory M Nov 13 '15 at 00:16