W3C Validation Tips and Best Practices

Hiroshi — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:15:52 +0000

Markup language validation is very important. Without it your web page will not be indexed in Google. Google crawlers will just avoid the invalid markup and errors in HTML. Here is a complete list of tips you can use to avoid HTML markup errors and warnings so that you write valid HTML or XHTML.

Advices For Valid Markup

Use (define) backgrounds in CSS, not in html, TD, TR or Table
Do not define height of table or tr
Use alt=”" at every image even at spacer and separator
Place form tag b4 and after table tag and not td
Use correct doctype i.e.
Use all attributes for tags, i.e. script tags and css link tags. i.e.
In Anchor link where u have to use & use its code like &

Advices For Valid CSS

Define background color with color, and for transparent use inherit i.e.
color : #000000;
background-color: inherit;
Use these both even one is not necessary to define, second with inherit property
Use shorthand for properties
Use generic font family i.e.
font-family : verdana, arial, sans-serif;
or
font-family : “trebuchet ms”, geneva, sans-serif;
For background and backgriund position use different lines. i.e.
background: url(../images/menulinebg.jpg) no-repeat;
background-position:left center;

Validate HTML, XHTML and CSS

W3C HTML Validator

http://validator.w3.org

CSS Validator

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

W3C Validation Tips and Best Practices is a post from: Web Style Press, Best Practices from all the Web, Build Better Websites