Document head errors affect indexing Search Engine Guideline

Description

Syntax errors in the head of the document prevent reliable extraction of meta tags and page titles.

Help

The HTML 5 parsing algorithm specifies that unexpected characters or non-head elements like img or div end the head element and start the body element meaning some meta data may be ignored. Unclosed title elements cause similar problems.

Applicable standards

• Google

Change history

• 5.36 Jan 2020 Now only fires for errors in the head element.
• 5.1 Jan 2013 No longer mentioned in Bing guidelines, but still in Google guidelines.
• 5.0 Oct 2012 Now fires on malformed HTML 5 code.
• 4.4 Aug 2011 Reduced priority to 3.
• 4.2 Dec 2010 Added - validation now appears in Google and Bing guidelines.

This page describes a web site issue detected in HTML documents by SortSite Desktop and OnDemand Suite.

Rule ID: SeoHtmlValidation