While learning HTML and XHTML yesterday, it was brought to my attention that apparently not all browsers can “read” HTML code if it’s not “valid”. Thus, it’s important to make sure your site is “XHTML validated”.

On my blog site, I have a “button” (Valid XHTML), I can click which takes me to a service named “W3C Markup Validator Service. Last night I ran a lot of pages through this service, and found that the some of the pages gave me an error message of ” Page is not valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional”. Upon further study, I found that these were pages that contained certain advertisements. So, apparently, some ads are not written with the correct or “valid” HTML code. If my pages are text only, they pass the validation process.

Now I’m in the process of examining what’s causing the errors. The W3C Markup Validator Service will let you print off a report showing where the errors occurred. In reading that report, I realize how important it is to know HTML and XHTML.

I have deleted some of my ads for the time being, and as I figure out how to make the necessary corrections, will add them back. I prefer to have “valid” pages. In the future, as I add advertising to a page or post, I will “run it through” the validation service and get their “stamp of approval”.

I’m glad I found this out now, as it would be mighty time consuming, if I had hundreds of posts, and found out I had problems with all of them.

Hint: Take the time to learn HTML and XHTM. It can be intimidating at first, but stick with it, and in the end you’ll be all that much smarter. Plus, you’ll have a “valid” blog