Jesse Skinner explains why developers should use appropriate semantic tags when marking up a page, rather than just putting everything inside a <div>.

Here’s a quick reference list of what I commonly use:

• <div> – For large page sections, and when there isn’t a specific semantic tag
• <h1> … <h6>: For section header titles
• <p> – For text paragraphs, and when there isn’t a specific semantic tag
• <ul>, <ol>, <dl> – For lists (including navigation menus)
• <table> – For spreadsheet data
• <span> – For inline formatting
• <label> – For form fields*
• <address> – For contact information, including phone numbers