I’m Posh… Are You?

The amount of people who think they can open up frontpage and/or macromedia dreamweaver and create a website is un-countable. The web itself is a great place but when it comes to websites and web design there are two ways of making a website; a right way and a wrong way. Plain Old Semantic HTML is the right way. If you want to know more you can read here, here and here.

Basically what I’m saying is I try to make my stuff properly, validate all of it and write my sites in a way which separates style from content. The way I design websites alows the design to be implimented - aka skinned - into many different programs easily and fast, optimize and load fast. Not to mean POSH helps me produce websites which allow more people on more devices on more platforms to access my sites more easily. You see it’s good all the way around for everyone. Did I mention POSH also makes your website easy to update, manipulate and makes it easier to get traffic and make your website work for you; instead of slaving over the html.

Unfortunately POSH - semantic markup - is also something most people building websites or creating content for the Web have yet to discover.

To start writing semantic markup, there are some simple tools to follow:

• Validate your HTML
• Stop using tables for layout
• Use semantic elements and attributes for their intended purpose
• Use semantic class names and id values
• Use as little HTML as will get the job done

The more people use the semantics of HTML correctly, the more reason for various user agents to improve their support for it.

A few practical semantic HTML tips:

• Use heading elements (h1 - h6) for headings, and make sure they create a logical outline of the document. This becomes a big deal for seo, so do it from page one and you will be doing yourself a huge favour.
• Use tables to mark up tabular data, and use the full set of features (caption, th, scope, headers etc.) provided by HTML 4.01 to make sure that the tables are accessible.
• When marking up a quote, use q or blockquote.
• For images, make proper use of the alt and title attributes - heard of google image search? Sound stupid? Then you could be missing out on traffic.
• Use HTML list elements (ul, ol, dl) to mark up lists. Also use those yummy lists for your menus and navigation.
• Use the em and strong elements for emphasis, not to make text bold or italic (i.e. do not mindlessly replace i and b with em and strong).

Still confused? What I’m generally trying to convey is that in my own little way I’m trying to heal the web. It’s bleeding badly from over-eating and fast-food. Not everyone is a chef and not everything that is cooked by someone should be ingested.

Either way: do your browser a favour - feed it the good stuff!

Curious if your current website is POSH? Well that is why I’m around; to make your site work hard for you. So, ask me how I can improve your online profit.