Search Engine Optimization

I recall disctinctly when Netscape came out with Navigator 3.11 or Navigator Gold (I might actually be remembering the version number incorrectly but I'm getting old, the Gold part is correct, however) and suddenly the public had a free WYSIWYG web page creator. Almost instantly the number and quality of web pages became inversely proportionate - in large numbers. This was approximately the time when I heard (and used) the phrase "any idiot can build a web page."

I have no wish to malign WYSIWYG web development software. I merely wish to point out that not all generators (WYSIWYG editors) are equal and you may only see what you expect to see in the target browser you have defaulted to in your editor's preferences setting. The very sad truth is that all browsers are now very large applications due to the their need to read and re-interpret web pages before they present them. Before the first top left corner GIF file is viewed the client browser will read and correct errors it is aware of and try to work around any new stupidity the web page may contain.

There is no substitute for writing clear, clean, concise code to present your content within a browser. The rewards are many but not the least of which is the capability of your web site to be properly viewed on a world of browsers - literally. Not only that, but your pages can be written to be compliant, if you elect a stricter standard that Transitional HTML, and viewable on wireless devices and PDAs. This is getting to be no small consideration. Whatever standard you elect to use, your best authority and resource is the Worldwide Web Consortium, W3C. Rather than attempt to recreate the enormity of their resources, we are presenting a tiny excerpt from one of their many, many pages to assist you in your introduction and instruction on the Internet standard of your choice. From this page you will be taken to their comprehensive library of tools and resources. They are free and absolutely invaluable to the web developer interested in creating cross-platform, fully standards compliant web pages. So step away from the GUI and take an informative tour of how the web is done ...correctly.

Tutorials

• Getting started with HTML by Dave Raggett is a short introduction to writing HTML, including tutorials on advanced features .
• Adding a touch of style by Dave Raggett is a short guide to styling your Web pages.
• XHTML Modules and Markup Languages - How to create XHTML Family modules and markup languages for fun and profit by Shane McCarron explains how to create XHTML Family modules and markup languages, based on Modularization of XHTML .

Slides on XHTML
You may also be interested in the following slides on XHTML:

• XHTML: The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language by Dave Raggett, at W3C LA event in Stockholm, 24 March 1999.
• W3C HTML Activity by Dave Raggett, as part of WWW8 W3C Track, 12 May 1999
• W3C Work on XHTML by Dave Raggett, at XML '99 , 6 December 1999. The presentation describes the work being done by W3C on XHTML.
• The XHTML Family (in Japanese) by Masayasu Ishikawa, at SFC Open Research Forum 2001 , 21 September 2001.
• XForms, XHTML and Device Independence by Steven Pemberton, at W3C.DE-Arbeitstreffen: Cross Media Publishing , 11 April 2002.
• XHTML Family by Masayasu Ishikawa, as part of WWW2002 W3C Track , 9 May 2002. Slides are available in XHTML or HTML (XHTML version needs XHTML+MathML+SVG+Ruby support).
• XHTML 2.0 and XForms by Steven Pemberton, as part of WWW2003 W3C Track , 21 May 2003.
• W3C's Horizontal Activities Usage: XHTML Family Case Study by Steven Pemberton, WWW2003 W3C Track, 23 May 2003.
• XHTML and XForms by Steven Pemberton, at Zomersessie van NGI Limburg: XHTML2 en XForms, state of the art en stage-ervaringen bij het W3C , 3 July 2003.

Guidelines for authoring

Here are some rough guidelines for HTML authors. If you use these, you are more likely to end up with pages that are easy to maintain, look acceptable to users regardless of the browser they are using, and can be accessed by the many Web users with disabilities. Meanwhile W3C have produced some more formal guidelines for authors. Have a look at the detailed Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 .

1. A question of style sheets. For most people the look of a document - the color, the font, the margins - are as important as the textual content of the document itself. But make no mistake! HTML is not designed to be used to control these aspects of document layout. What you should do is to use HTML to mark up headings, paragraphs, lists, hypertext links, and other structural parts of your document, and then add a style sheet to specify layout separately, just as you might do in a conventional Desk Top Publishing Package. That way, not only is there a better chance of all browsers displaying your document properly, but also, if you want to change such things as the font or color, it's really simple to do so. See the Touch of style .

2. FONT tag considered harmful! Many filters from word-processing packages, and also some HTML authoring tools, generate HTML code which is completely contrary to the design goals of the language. What they do is to look at a document almost purely from the point of view of layout, and then mimic that layout in HTML by doing tricks with FONT, BR and   (non-breaking spaces). HTML documents are supposed to be structured around items such as paragraphs, headings and lists. Yet some of these documents barely have a paragraph tag in sight!

   The problem comes when the content of pages needs to be updated, or given a new layout, or re-cast in XML (which is now to be the new mark-up language). With proper use of HTML, such operations are not difficult, but with a muddle of non-structural tags it's quite a different matter; maintenance tasks become impractical. To correct pages suffering from injudicious use of FONT, try the HTML Tidy program , which will do its best to put things right and generate better and more manageable HTML.

3. Make your pages readable by those with disabilities. The Web is a tremendously useful tool for the visually impaired or blind user, but bear in mind that these users rely on speech synthesizers or Braille readers to render the text. Sloppy mark-up, or mark-up which doesn't have the layout defined in a separate style sheet, is hard for such software to deal with. Wherever possible, use a style sheet for the presentational aspects of your pages, using HTML purely for structural mark-up.

   Also, remember to include descriptions with each image, and try to avoid server-side image maps. For tables, you should include a summary of the table's structure, and remember to associate table data with relevant headers. This will give non-visual browsers a chance to help orient people as they move from one cell to the next. For forms, remember to include labels for form fields.

Do look at the accessibility guidelines for a more detailed account of how to make your Web pages really accessible.

W3C Markup Validation Service

To further promote the reliability and fidelity of communications on the Web, W3C has introduced the W3C Markup Validation Service at http://validator.w3.org/ .

Content providers can use this service to validate their Web pages against the HTML and XHTML Recommendations, thereby ensuring the maximum possible audience for their Web pages. It also supports XHTML Family document types such as XHTML+MathML and XHTML+MathML+SVG , and also other markup vocabularies such as SVG .

Software developers who write HTML and XHTML editing tools can ensure interoperability with other Web software by verifying that the output of their tool complies with the W3C Recommendations for HTML and XHTML.