The Most Important Thing Is to Get the HTML Right

Published on Sep 26, 2008 (updated Feb 5, 2024), filed under development, html, quality, semantics, accessibility, maintainability (feed). (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)

This and many other posts are also available as a pretty, well-behaved ebook: On Web Development. And speaking of which, here’s a short treatise just about managing the quality of websites: The Little Book of Website Quality Control (updated).

…meaning completely right when it comes to high quality web development.

Why? Because it’s the markup that makes for most of the code of a site and is hence key to cost efficiency and maintainability; because it carries meaning and is important for accessibility; because it often has an impact on performance; and because it is, with decent content, the prerequisite for online success.

What does that mean? While HTML syntax and semantics are not too hard, writing good HTML requires robust knowledge and experience to leave out irrelevant (optional) code and avoid maintenance traps. What mastering HTML does, then, is move complexity to styling and scripting, meaning that in order to write efficient HTML, even more solid understanding and experience of CSS and the DOM are required in order to achieve the presentation and behavior desired.

We need to keep in mind: Changing documents is more expensive than changing style sheets and scripts, because there are more documents and templates than style sheets and scripts. Writing the best possible HTML contributes to challenges and complexity on the styling and scripting ends—and that is worth it.

Regardless of whether you were aware, I had to stress this in more than one place. There are then other posts that explain HTML best practices in more detail, including the collection of popular posts on this site.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you’ve never heard of and companies you use every day, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)