Common Mistakes in the HEAD section of a Website

Some of the most common and often made mistakes when designing a website are in the Head section of the HTML page. This article assumes that you have some experience in website design and HTML, but still are in the novice stage. Let me just say before starting that, yes, I have made many of these mistakes myself. I think most have, whether they want to admit it or not!

I am including this very common mistake made by Professional website design even though this is not actually inside the HEAD tags. I don't know how many times I've seen in a forum the question "why is my page not doing what I told it to do?" A big reason is because many designers mistaking omit the DOCTYPE declaration that should be the very first line of your HTML page. (Preceding the opening HTML tag). When not included, or when incomplete, IE, (Internet Explorer), immediately goes into "Quirks" mode.

Where I used to work, my manager would omit the DocType because he said it would generate better search engine rankings. I knew better so I never did follow that example.  Now if I could just get better at going Table-less!

Thanks
www.BarnettWebsites.com

Another thing I've heard to pay attention to is proper use of META tags.

Some search engines use the META description tag when displaying your sites info. And as far as the META keywords tag goes, keep it simple, but make sure the keywords you have listed are in the content of your documant.

Another important point to remember is to be aware of the which doctype you're using. If you're trying to become a more standards based coder, then be aware that the 'TRANSITIONAL' DOCTYPE will allow you to place non standard XHTML into your document while helping the browsers to render that code properly. This may serve to reinforce bad habits in your coding. The 'STRICT' DOCTYPE may make it more difficult to create unique cross browser layouts but at least, when you finally get the code to work, you'll know it is standards based.

I totally agree with you on this point and am one of those that needs to start doing this more.  I just recently was directed to a website that talks about the transitional type and strict type from a twitter friend.  Here is the link for those that may want to find out more about why it's important to clear away from transitional doctype!

Great Point KahlilH

Lisa Barnett
www.barnettwebsites.com