Are <p> tags important inside the <article> tag for SEO?

Question

Since you can't put <h2> tags and lists and such inside <p> tags. How to go about creating articles with <h2> tags and lists. Can I replace the <p> tag with a <div>? Or just leave out the <p> tag altogether?

Article example 1: ( No H tags )

<article>
<header>
  <img src="">
  <h1></h1>
  <p></p>
</header>
<p>
  <span style="width:100%;display:block;"><strong>hf</strong></span>
  <span style="width:100%;display:block;"><strong>fhfg</strong></span>
</p>
</article>

Article example 2: ( With H tags )

<article>
<header>
<img src="">
<h1></h1>
<p></p>
</header>
<p>
  <span style="width:100%;display:block;">ghjghj</span>
  <br>
  <span style="width:100%;display:block;">ghjghj</span>
</p>
<h2>ghjghjghjhhgjg</h2>
<span style="width:100%;display:block;">ghg</span>
<p></p>

As soon as the <h2> tag is introduced, the <p> tag gets automatically closed and the <h2> tag, and any content that follows will be placed outside the <p> tag.

Is the second example bad for SEO? And if so, would using a <div> tag in place of the <p> tags in example one be any better?

Answer 1

A <p> tag is specifically for a paragraph. If you are creating a section of a page, use a container tag, such as <article>, <div>, or <section>.

And, FYI, you can put whatever you want in a <p> and the browser will probably not have any problem with it. It's not good practice, it can lead to some unexpected behaviour, and it won't pass validation, but you can do it.

Answer 2

Think of writing a paper. Your paper would be one topic with subtopics. You would have headers and paragraphs. Headers define a subtopic of the papers topic and precede the paragraphs that cover the subtopic. You would have more than one subtopic in logical order to make your point. In effect, the headers are your topic outline.

This is how headers and paragraphs should be used.

That said, there is nothing that stops you from using a list or header within a paragraph. I would recommend avoiding it.

<h2>How does Price Signaling work?</h2>

<p>Price Signaling is a marketing method to reflect quality of the product being offered.</p>

<ul>
<li>People make judgments of the quality of the product based upon price.</li>
<li>People will chose the quality of the product that makes sense for their purpose based upon the price.</li>
<li>People will often not chose the lowest or highest priced product.</li>
<li>People will often chose the highest priced product when they are looking for a high quality product.</li>
</ul>

<p>Marketers will price their product toward the customer they desire.</p>

While this is a fairly standard example, if you need to style the list, for example, you may want to use other tags such as <strong> or <bold> or use your cascading style sheet (CSS) for style. Do not use header tags for style if that is what you are doing.

As far as the <article> tag is concerned, you would use this to "wrap" your entire content to send a signal to the search engines.