Using section element for stylistic layout and wrappers

Question

I often use divs for stylistic layouts(pieces of markup with no content, specifically focused on the design) and wrappers on sites. With that said, Why should sections not b

Answer 1

Yes, the section element has an "inherent semantic meaning". See the definitions in the HTML5 spec:

• div element:

  The div element has no special meaning at all.

• section element:

  The section element represents a generic section of a document or application. A section, in this context, is a thematic grouping of content, typically with a heading.

To understand what this meaning is about, see my answer on the question HTML5 section tag meanings?.

The most important argument for not using section as a wrapper for CSS/JS is: each section creates an entry in the outline of your document.

Don’t use section as a wrapper in the way you described it. Use div (resp. span) instead.

If you use section appropriately, you can of course use it as selector for CSS/JS in addition, so you don’t need to add another div for this.

Answer 2

I'm not an expert in semantics, but I believe that using a section as a wrapper for an entire site, for example, overrides any semantic function of this tag. That is, search engines, etc.. will interpret it as a div.