The day before yesterday I had a quick look at 30 randomly selected blogs plus 4 of the bigger social sites. I checked the validity of the markup on the front pages of all these sites. I was expecting a high percentage of sites not to have valid code but I was not quite prepared for the results of the actual test.
Of the 30 sites I chose at random, 29 failed the validation test. The one site that passed was actually a site that concentrates on website accessibility (not my own). The total number of HTML errors for the 30 sites was 1611, giving an average of just under 54 errors per site.
4 of the sites used in the test were from so-called A-listers. All 4 these sites failed the test. In total these 4 sites had 440 HTML errors, giving an average of 110 errors per site. This is quite a bit higher than the average for the lesser known sites.
I also had a look at 4 of the social sites that I know well or are currently using. I had a look at the front pages of Digg, Entrecard, Plurk, StumbleUpon and Twitter. Guess what, they all failed the validation tests. In total these sites had 86 HTML errors. Their average is just under 22 which is quite a bit less than the others.
Getting your HTML code to validate is sometimes quite a chore but it is so necessary. If the HTML code does not validate it is extremely difficult to meet any of the accessibility standards but this is by no means the only problem. Just why should we ensure that our code validates?
- If your code is not valid the Search Engines cannot index your pages correctly.
- Valid code renders a lot faster than its invalid counterpart.
- Invalid markup might not be compatible with future browsers.
- Non compliant markup means that your pages are not viewable in the same way within the different browsers. This is normally referred to as WYSINWOG (what you see is not what others get).
- Having a site with dynamic content is not an excuse for not having valid code. It is more than possible and also not so difficult to do.
I think I will close with that old cliche. Write it right the first time and write it once. Write it wrong and you will be writing it again.
What about your site, is the markup valid or is your site included in the thirty odd I tested?
I’m not IT savvy and I’m sure I have lots of html errors compared to the big social sites.
There is nothing I can do. *shrugs shoulders*
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Thanks for the comment eastcoastlife. Many are put off validating when they see the number of errors on their pages. A high number of errors does not necessarily mean you have big problems. Many of the errors shown by a validator are sometimes all related to the same error. You could find that when you correct one or two errors a whole lot of other validator errors have disappeared.
I certainly have found that fixing one or two things makes more than a corresponding number of errors go away, so when you wrote that those pages had 400+ errors, I was thinking — yeah that’s what the validator showed, but it’s going to duplicate errors that will only require one fix to correct, so I wonder what the REAL number is. IMO, if ONE fix will correct 10 “errors” then there is really only ONE ERROR, not 10.
That being said, an error is an error is an error and should be fixed if at all possible.
And think about it — just because a blogger is an “A” list blogger, doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the creator of the script behind his website. More than likely he or she had someone else do that coding and is only providing the content and organization for the site.
That’s certainly true for me (although I am NOT an “A” list blogger!). I use free Wordpress templates that I’ve found where I like the general layout of and basic graphics and color scheme. I create a few custom graphics for it to replace the generic ones and my tweak some HTML on the style sheet to make it more esthetically pleasing to me personally, then turn it loose. The current theme I’m using, despite my many “tweaks” still does not validate entirely. I still show some 75 errors that would probably all be corrected with one line of PHP coding, but I don’t know PHP and am reluctant to try to fix this error on my own (it’s something to do with title), not to mention having a lack of time to thoroughly check it out lately — maybe this weekend will be the charm there
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If I had purchased a custom theme from some web developer, I would certainly expect the developer to validate their coding before releasing it to me.
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Thanks for the comment Margaret. I only mentioned the A-listers because these guys have so many followers, they should be setting an example.
The problem on a blog with valid code is not only restricted to the actual design of the template or theme used. Every time a new plugin is added you could be invalidating your code. Any script added for ads etc. could actually be making the markup invalid. This same thing could be done by the author when he/she adds articles, graphics or whatever. Many blog themes started off with valid markup but the blogger put paid to all that.
Every time time we have anything to do with the HTML we need to watch our Ps and Qs with regards to the markup. Every time we make any changes to our blog, we should check the validation of the code.
Margaret, I have just found a good example of what I have tried to say earlier, the link to Plurk I included above on this page has invalidated my markup. I will have a look at this straight away.
Fixed the problem, I suppose one has to practice what you preach. I just remembered something else that is bad news for bloggers. It is possible that a visitor in a comment could actually be adding code that could ruin your site’s validation. Not likely, but it is possible.
Hello!
Just followed you over here from Endangered Spaces. I was wondering what validation service or gadget you use? When I worked as a designer, all my sites were compliant. Of course, that was back in the day of hand coding html, so things were much easier. I should check all mine, even if it would depress me. ;-(
Thanks for such a comprehensive study sailor, it’s good to know even the bigger sites get things wrong!
Did you notice any major errors on our site by any chance (only if you happened to come across it)?
CyberCelt, I still use the normal W3 Validator to get the initial validation done. Once that is done I use Total Validator to check for further errors and to maintain the pages every time I make changes. Thanks for dropping in.
Marie, there are a few errors but it appears not to include anything serious. Most of the errors are repeats. If you fix one or two most of the errors will disappear. I like the theme or template you are using on your site. Thanks for dropping in.
Thanks for taking the time to look sailor and for the advice
Awesome article! I find that the types of errors are more important than the number of errors. 1 critical error can cause a boat load of problems later, especially when web browser updates are released.
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You are completely correct. These days the number of new browser versions seems to be coming fast and furious.