30 HTML Best Practices for Beginners

Source: http://net.tutsplus.com, (2009/04/14), by: Jeffrey Way

1. Always close your tags to avoid validation and glitch issues at every turn.
2. Declare the correct DocType. HTML 4.01 is suggested.
3. Never use inline styles unless if the pages has been completely coded.
4. Place all external CSS files within the head tag to make pages faster to be load.
5. Consider placing Javascript files at the bottom to make pages faster to be loaded.
6. Never use inline Javascript. It's not 1996.
7. Validate continuously to avoid strange whitespace issue.
8. Download firebug as a tool providing Javascript debugging and extra padding inspector.
9. Use firebug and learn it as well.
10. Keep your tag name lowercase.
11. Use H1-H6 tags for semantic reasons.
12. If building a blog, save the H1 for the article title.
13. Download ySlow to analyze areas which need improvement.
14. Wrap navigation with an unordered list for semantic reasons.
15. Learn how to target IE as demanded by IE.
16. Choose a great code editor such as Coda, Espresso (Mac), or InType, Notepad++ (PC).
17. Once the website is complete, compress! 18) Once you've completed the markup, reduce the number of elements on the page.
18. All images require attributes for accesibility and validation reason.
19. Stay up late to study Javascript closures and other codings.
20. View source to learn the coding.
21. Style all elements to show off.
22. Use Twitter to have networking tool in your industry.
23. Learn Photoshop.
24. Learn each HTML tag.
25. Participate in the community to teach yourself and learn more.
26. Use a CSS reset.
27. Line 'em up to understand why the element is placed.
28. Slice a PSD.
29. Don't use a framework when first getting started. Beginners need sometimes to study it to avoid confusion.

This article is very helpful for me to avoid errors in creating HTML pages and gives basic knowledge about terms and coding techniques in HTML.