SEO Fodder: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 T

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SEO Fodder: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 T

What Is its Purpose?

perry321

10:17 am on Sep 22, 2007 (gmt 0)

What is the purpose of the following two SEO fodder?

Thanks.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

lavazza

10:32 am on Sep 22, 2007 (gmt 0)

Doctype declaration is primarily for the benefit of your visitors' browsers - it has little (if anything?) to do with Search Engine Optimisation

see:
----------------------------
FAQ: Choosing the best doctype for your site
[webmasterworld.com...]
----------------------------
doctypes and CSS Support
[webmasterworld.com...]
----------------------------

And, if you need any more light, bedtime reading:
HTML 4.01 Specification (the ABSTRACT section near the top)
[w3.org...]

rocknbil

9:29 pm on Sep 22, 2007 (gmt 0)

Welcome aboard perry321, the biggest effect a document type will have on your pages is in the way it renders. Certain CSS methods will only work with a valid document type. If the document type is not specified or invalid, it will change the rendering from "standards mode" to "quirks mode." Quirks mode will allow you more room to use non-standard markup and CSS methods, but then many methods will fail to assign some selectors correctly. For example, the color "ff0000" will work in quirks mode, but a valid 4.01 doctype will require you to use the octal "#ff0000" (or #ff0).

It's notable to mention that a valid document type is still in Quirks mode if the URL is not included.

Invalid:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

Valid:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

penders

2:15 pm on Sep 23, 2007 (gmt 0)

What is the purpose of the following two SEO fodder?

Btw, that is really just one statement, although it may be wrapping onto two lines in your source.

Another recent and related thread on DOCTYPEs...
[webmasterworld.com...]