Dear all, Hope this is ok, I'm a first time poster and I've just run a validation test on my first proper website. Its only really a few months old (although I've dabbed at it over the years not seriously) and its failing in SEO miserably and pulling only a handful of visitors a day. Its home page is getting 78 errors and I haven't any experience with html on how to fix these. I built it with Website X5 Evolution and I know that I need to sort this as part of my SEO strategy. I'll probably have to outsource this due to my lack of experience but how easy are the following errors to fix (especially since its been built with a WYSIWGY editor?) Much of the website has flash 'virtual tours' on it which I think might have complicated things. I haven't pasted all the errors but here is a taster. Any help is much appreciated Validation Output: 73 Errors Line 146, Column 37: end tag for element "SCRIPT" which is not open // End of favorites code --></SCRIPT>✉ The Validator found an end tag for the above element, but that element is not currently open. This is often caused by a leftover end tag from an element that was removed during editing, or by an implicitly closed element (if you have an error related to an element being used where it is not allowed, this is almost certainly the case). In the latter case this error will disappear as soon as you fix the original problem. If this error occurred in a script section of your document, you should probably read this FAQ entry. Line 147, Column 7: end tag for "script" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified </div>✉ You may have neglected to close an element, or perhaps you meant to "self-close" an element, that is, ending it with "/>" instead of ">". Line 131: start tag was here -<script type="text/javascript"><!-- Line 155, Column 52: cannot generate system identifier for general entity "pub" …/www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=xa-4a6cc47d62d08181" onmouseover="ret✉ An entity reference was found in the document, but there is no reference by that name defined. Often this is caused by misspelling the reference name, unencoded ampersands, or by leaving off the trailing semicolon (. The most common cause of this error is unencoded ampersands in URLs as described by the WDG in "Ampersands in URLs". Entity references start with an ampersand (&) and end with a semicolon (. If you want to use a literal ampersand in your document you must encode it as "&" (even inside URLs!). Be careful to end entity references with a semicolon or your entity reference may get interpreted in connection with the following text. Also keep in mind that named entity references are case-sensitive; &Aelig; and æ are different characters. If this error appears in some markup generated by PHP's session handling code, this article has explanations and solutions to your problem. Note that in most documents, errors related to entity references will trigger up to 5 separate messages from the Validator. Usually these will all disappear when the original problem is fixed. Line 155, Column 52: general entity "pub" not defined and no default entity …/www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=xa-4a6cc47d62d08181" onmouseover="ret✉ This is usually a cascading error caused by a an undefined entity reference or use of an unencoded ampersand (&) in an URL or body text. See the previous message for further details. Line 155, Column 55: reference not terminated by REFC delimiter …w.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=xa-4a6cc47d62d08181" onmouseover="return✉ If you meant to include an entity that starts with "&", then you should terminate it with ";". Another reason for this error message is that you inadvertently created an entity by failing to escape an "&" character just before this text. Line 155, Column 55: reference to external entity in attribute value …w.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=xa-4a6cc47d62d08181" onmouseover="return✉ This is generally the sign of an ampersand that was not properly escaped for inclusion in an attribute, in a href for example. You will need to escape all instances of '&' into '&'. Line 155, Column 55: reference to entity "pub" for which no system identifier could be generated …w.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=xa-4a6cc47d62d08181" onmouseover="return✉ This is usually a cascading error caused by a an undefined entity reference or use of an unencoded ampersand (&) in an URL or body text. See the previous message for further details. Line 155, Column 50: entity was defined here …://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=xa-4a6cc47d62d08181" onmouseover="r Line 165, Column 6: document type does not allow element "html" here <html> ✉ The element named above was found in a context where it is not allowed. This could mean that you have incorrectly nested elements -- such as a "style" element in the "body" section instead of inside "head" -- or two elements that overlap (which is not allowed). One common cause for this error is the use of XHTML syntax in HTML documents. Due to HTML's rules of implicitly closed elements, this error can create cascading effects. For instance, using XHTML's "self-closing" tags for "meta" and "link" in the "head" section of a HTML document may cause the parser to infer the end of the "head" section and the beginning of the "body" section (where "link" and "meta" are not allowed; hence the reported error). Line 165, Column 1: Missing xmlns attribute for element html. The value should be: http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml <html> ✉ Many Document Types based on XML need a mandatory xmlns="" on the root element. For example, the root element for XHTML will look like: <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> Line 170, Column 19: Attribute "leftMargin" is not a valid attribute <body leftMargin="0" topMargin="0" rightMargin="0" bottomMargin="0"> ✉ You have used the attribute named above in your document, but the document type you are using does not support that attribute for this element. This error is often caused by incorrect use of the "Strict" document type with a document that uses frames (e.g. you must use the "Transitional" document type to get the "target" attribute), or by using vendor proprietary extensions such as "marginheight" (this is usually fixed by using CSS to achieve the desired effect instead). This error may also result if the element itself is not supported in the document type you are using, as an undefined element will have no supported attributes; in this case, see the element-undefined error message for further information. How to fix: check the spelling and case of the element and attribute, (Remember XHTML is all lower-case) and/or check that they are both allowed in the chosen document type, and/or use CSS instead of this attribute. If you received this error when using the <embed> element to incorporate flash media in a Web page, see the FAQ item on valid flash. Line 170, Column 33: Attribute "topMargin" is not a valid attribute. Did you mean "marginwidth" or "marginheight"? <body leftMargin="0" topMargin="0" rightMargin="0" bottomMargin="0"> ✉ You have used the attribute named above in your document, but the document type you are using does not support that attribute for this element. This error is often caused by incorrect use of the "Strict" document type with a document that uses frames (e.g. you must use the "Transitional" document type to get the "target" attribute), or by using vendor proprietary extensions such as "marginheight" (this is usually fixed by using CSS to achieve the desired effect instead). This error may also result if the element itself is not supported in the document type you are using, as an undefined element will have no supported attributes; in this case, see the element-undefined error message for further information. How to fix: check the spelling and case of the element and attribute, (Remember XHTML is all lower-case) and/or check that they are both allowed in the chosen document type, and/or use CSS instead of this attribute. If you received this error when using the <embed> element to incorporate flash media in a Web page, see the FAQ item on valid flash. Line 170, Column 49: Attribute "rightMargin" is not a valid attribute <body leftMargin="0" topMargin="0" rightMargin="0" bottomMargin="0"> ✉ You have used the attribute named above in your document, but the document type you are using does not support that attribute for this element. This error is often caused by incorrect use of the "Strict" document type with a document that uses frames (e.g. you must use the "Transitional" document type to get the "target" attribute), or by using vendor proprietary extensions such as "marginheight" (this is usually fixed by using CSS to achieve the desired effect instead). This error may also result if the element itself is not supported in the document type you are using, as an undefined element will have no supported attributes; in this case, see the element-undefined error message for further information. How to fix: check the spelling and case of the element and attribute, (Remember XHTML is all lower-case) and/or check that they are both allowed in the chosen document type, and/or use CSS instead of this attribute. If you received this error when using the <embed> element to incorporate flash media in a Web page, see the FAQ item on valid flash.
Copying and pasting the W3C validator's output isn't going to get much response from anyone. W3C validation is generally a path you need to walk yourself. The W3C validator gives you the line number of each error - with a bit of Googling, and some perseverance, you should be able to fix most of the validation errors yourself, and possibly learn something while you're at it. Keep in mind that W3C validation is mostly an ego badge. There are plenty of valid sites that "don't work", and just as many invalid sites that work perfectly across all browsers/platforms.
Being built with a WYSIWGY editor isn't going to help, most likely going to spit out some junk that is not good.