<section>: The Generic Section element - HTML

used without a heading are typically found in web application/UI sections rather than in traditional document structures. In a document, it doesn't really make any sense to have a separate section of content without a heading to describe its contents. Such headings are useful for all readers, but particularly useful for users of assistive technologies like screen readers, and they are also good for SEO. Consider however a secondary navigation mechanism. If the global navigation is already wrapped in a element, you could conceivably wrap a previous/next menu in a : html Previous article Next article Or what about some kind of button bar for controlling your app? This might not necessarily want a heading, but it is still a distinct section of the document: html Result Depending on the content, including a heading could also be good for SEO, so it is an option to consider.

`Technical summary`

Content categories	Flow content, Sectioning content, palpable content.
Permitted content	Flow content.
Tag omission	None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents	Any element that accepts flow content. Note that a element must not be a descendant of an element.
Implicit ARIA role	`region` if the element has an accessible name, otherwise `generic`
Permitted ARIA roles	`alert`, `alertdialog`, `application`, `banner`, `complementary`, `contentinfo`, `dialog`, `document`, `feed`, `log`, `main`, `marquee`, `navigation`, `none`, `note`, `presentation`, `search`, `status`, `tabpanel`
DOM interface	`HTMLElement`

`Specifications`

Specification
HTML # the-section-element

`Browser compatibility`

See also Other section-related elements: , , , , h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, , , , Using HTML sections and outlines ARIA: Region role Why You Should Choose HTML5 article Over section, by Bruce Lawson Help improve MDN Was this page helpful to you? Learn how to contribute.This page was last modified on Apr 10, 2025 by MDN contributors. View this page on GitHub • Report a problem with this content

After

Heading

Result

See also