W3C Compliant

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W3C Compliant

Tempire

7:18 pm on Feb 28, 2016 (gmt 0)

Hi All

I was using this website where you get a score of how your own site is doing.
But in code quality i got 0,5 of 10! so very low.
It says that a total of 406 errors and 245 warnings were found on the 5 pages tested.
No pages are W3C compliant. Because there are errors in the code, some web browsers may not be able to read this website correctly and it may not always display correctly.

I am using wordpress to run my site. Is this something i need to do something about, i cant really figure out what exactly it is.

lucy24

9:49 pm on Feb 28, 2016 (gmt 0)

Start by going directly to the horse's mouth rather than a third party:

[validator.w3.org...] (HTML validator)
[jigsaw.w3.org...] (CSS validator)

Look at the results and see exactly what errors they're reporting. Not all "warnings" are alike. Some are just for your information; others are things you need to think about and maybe change. And not all "errors" are fatal. (For example: if you have <a name = "blahblah"> in html 5 it's an error, because you should be using id alone-- but it won't harm the display of your page in any way.) In HTML 4 the validator is stricter than the actual HTML standard when it comes to things like capitalization.

Also look at some of your generated pages, using the View Source option in any browser. Does the <head> section look the way it's supposed to? When you have a lot of the same error, can you change a WP setting to fix it globally?

Next step is to look more closely at your WP install. How many addons/plugins/themes/skins/whatever-extras are you using? Have you got the most recent version of everything?

The good news is: The more errors, the better. If the validator reports 11 errors, it means you made eleven mistakes. But if it reports 200 errors, it means you made the same mistake 200 times and you only need to fix one thing globally. In some cases it's even better: a single mistake near the beginning of the page will make the validator go crazy and list the whole remainder of the page as one error after another until it gets tired and gives up.

not2easy

11:43 pm on Feb 28, 2016 (gmt 0)

It's not a Wordpress problem, it is the Theme you are using. Since the html and css for WP are part of the theme you choose, fixing it can be as simple as installing a compliant theme. If you just have to have the theme you're using then use the links lucy24 suggested and you can repair the problems they will show you. Just be aware that when the Theme is updated, you'll need to do it all again.

tangor

1:14 am on Feb 29, 2016 (gmt 0)

^^^^ agree with all.... in WP it's usually a theme that causes these kinds of errors as WP out of the box and basic install is pretty compliant. Remove some of those bells and whistles and test again, might help locate the culprit.

Tempire

7:49 am on Feb 29, 2016 (gmt 0)

Thanks for your responces.

It was the same errors when using the link you posted Lucy24.Themes and plugins are also up to date. I think the head section looks as it should, but again, i am not that much into coding.

I tried changing to a default theme, and that reduced the errors to 19 and some for h1 title, so i guess it�s the theme i am using. It is a theme i have bought and would like to use, but not if it will affect my website and rankings negative.

I am not into all the code language and that is also why i use wordpress, because it�s much easier and i don�t really understand all these different warnings.

It did also lead me to another problem. When checking the scource code i don�t see my keywords listed there, although that i have entered them i the allinoneseo plugin options. It is just shown as empty. <meta name="keywords" content="" />

[edited by: travelin_cat at 4:08 pm (utc) on Feb 29, 2016]

lucy24

4:33 pm on Feb 29, 2016 (gmt 0)

<meta name="keywords" content="" />

Next step is to remove the meta entirely. No major search engine pays the tiniest bit of attention to this item, so you're just cluttering up your html with meaningless overhead. Instead make sure each page has a decent meta description-- in good prose, not a string of words-- because this will sometimes be displayed in searches.

not2easy

6:30 pm on Feb 29, 2016 (gmt 0)

Even if you want to use WP as a CMS, you should learn css and html, at least enough to understand the reports. Then you can decide whether they are telling you important things to fix or minor problems which are technically incorrect but not crucial. The aim for w3c Compliance is a great goal, but if you aren't able to read and act on the reports from tools, you might be better off to ignore w3c as long as things are working. Knowing how to fix things is an important part of having a website.

Although they aren't known to be 100% correct in every detail I still suggest w3schools to learn to work with css and html. With a basic understanding you can visit w3c and learn in depth.

Tempire

7:02 pm on Feb 29, 2016 (gmt 0)

Next step is to remove the meta entirely.

I am not sure what you mean, are you saying that the keywords i fill in, in the allinoneseo option dosent matter?

Even if you want to use WP as a CMS, you should learn css and html, at least enough to understand the reports.

You are right, i do need to study more of the basics, and i will do so and maybe even try building a site from scratch.

I just got worried when seeing all the errors and wasen�t sure if it was a big deal.

Although they aren't known to be 100% correct in every detail I still suggest w3schools to learn to work with css and html.

And thanks for the suggestion, i will give them a visit.

lucy24

8:56 pm on Feb 29, 2016 (gmt 0)

are you saying that the keywords i fill in, in the allinoneseo option dosent matter?

I'm saying there's no point in having a keywords meta at all, because nobody reads it. Maybe in 2004 before every fly-by-night spam site in the land came out with
<meta name = "keywords" content = "viagra, spam, cialis, spam, enhancement, spam, virus, spam, robot">
et cetera. But today, if you're using a plugin whose sole function is to create this meta, that's a wasted plugin.

afaik, the existence of a keywords meta doesn't actively count against you. At least not yet.

W3C Compliant

Tempire

lucy24

not2easy

tangor

Tempire

lucy24

not2easy

Tempire

lucy24

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