Basics of HTML

Web Etiquette

In my years of working with web pages, I've developed some opinions on what makes a courteous and ethical website. Here are some of them, both big picture and nitty-gritty tips on how to be a good web citizen through the pages you author:

Write proper HTML

This is not only the right thing to do, but it will be helpful as standards evolve. Your features are more likely to degrade gracefully when new rules come into force if you wrote them correctly in the first place. Plus, the types of devices that can display webpages are multiplying and you want your content to be readable on these phones, ebook readers, text-to-speech devices, etc. Keeping up with the current standards helps here, since they are designed to make web content device-neutral as much as possible. 

Validate your pages, which is an easy way to find out if they're using current standards (check the resources in the Accessibility and Validation box under the Resources tab). And keep up with the news at W3Schools.

Give credit where credit is due

"Borrowing" graphics, code, and layout ideas from other Web pages is an accepted emergent "tradition" of the medium. But, out of courtesy as well as honesty, and also in the spirit of helping others find "good stuff," credit your borrowings whenever possible. Also, be careful with your borrowing. Make sure the intellectual property you're lifting isn't proprietary. Looking for a Creative Commons designation is one way to do this, or check for restrictions in a site's "About" page. If in doubt, ask for permission.

Make sure your readers know where they are and who you are...

I'm sure you've been to pages on the Web that looked great, but you were reluctant to cite or recommend them because you had no idea who had put them up. Don't let that happen to your readers. If you don't put some kind of identifying footer on each page (you might want to include a copyright notice—use © to make this sign: ©), you should put a link on every page back to some main page from which a reader can tell who you are and what kind of site they're visiting. You should also have a way for readers to contact you (maybe a mailto link) somewhere in your pages. See more details under the Identification tab.

...and when you are

One of my biggest pet peeves about many web pages is their lack of a date notice. Do all your readers, especially your repeat "customers," a favor and include a last updated note on your pages. Many kinds of content, in addition to the obvious like schedules, are time-sensitive to some degree. On some of the resource pages I've consulted in updating this guide, my only indication of the datedness of a page is when they mention Netscape a lot. Web pages should be dated just as books and journal articles are.

You might even want to put a trio of dates on each page:

• a created date (so that you get credit for having had the page for such a long time)
• an updated date
• and a links checked date (see below)

If you have trouble remembering to add dates to pages, like I do, you might want to use this nifty line of JavaScript:

document.write(document.lastModified);

Placed within a set of <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"></SCRIPT> tags, it will automatically change the date when the page is updated. (I usually addLast updated in normal HTML text before the script.) Learn more about JavaScript through these W3Schools examples.

Make sure your pages can stand on their own, or at least are usable out of context

You never know how readers are going to come to your pages. They might very well not come through the "front door." Back to main page links are a good idea. Don't just rely on your readers' "Back" button. If they came to a subsidiary page first, pushing "Back" will never get them to your main page. You might even want to avoid such wording as "on the previous page...," except in special circumstances, since your readers may not visit your pages in the order you intended.

Testing

It's always a good idea to test your pages in different browsers and on different devices. Make sure your content still gets communicated no matter what.

Better yet, let other people test them. What seems like a crystal clear organization/navigation scheme to you might not be so easy to follow for someone not as familiar with your subject. In fact, usability testing should be a major, ongoing part of the maintenance of any web site. There is good information on usability issues at usability.gov.

Make repairs

Checking for broken links is a must if you don't want your users to get frustrated with error messages or redirects. Everyone on the web seems to change their urls more often than their shoes! Keep up and keep current easily by using link-checking software. I use Xenu and have been very happy with it. Don't be put off by the creepy-looking alien on the website! Read about it here on Wikipedia.