When I run my site through http://validator.w3.org/, I get 43 error
messages. I need guidance on how to fix these errors. I would also
like to know if there are ways to optimize this site for search
engines. Thanks. |
Clarification of Question by
helpapoorman-ga
on
26 Mar 2006 10:29 PST
the site is seniorcitizen.com
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Request for Question Clarification by
palitoy-ga
on
27 Mar 2006 00:51 PST
Hello helpapoorman-ga,
You may have more success in posting this question as two questions.
For example, I can easily answer the first part of your question
regarding the error messages but the second part of your question
(regarding optimization) is not an area I am confident in giving an
answer (I have optimized a number of websites but only with varying
degrees of success).
If you would like me to answer the first part of your question only
then please respond to this clarification and I will respond as soon
as possible.
palitoy-ga
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Clarification of Question by
helpapoorman-ga
on
17 Apr 2006 04:55 PDT
When I run my site through http://validator.w3.org/, I get 43 error
messages. I need guidance on how to fix these errors.
the site is seniorcitizen.com
I also wanted to take advantage of the blank space below the two right
columns. can I code a table that i can place below these two columns?
how?
|
Hello helpapoorman-ga,
Thank-you for your question and for reducing the question into a
smaller part for me. Hopefully if you are still requiring assistance
on the optimization another researcher will be able to help you out.
Upon running your homepage through the validator the page came up with
413 error messages. The majority of these are easily fixed as they
relate to the same problem repeated throughout the page.
The first type of error message that we need to fix is the one
happening with the links where you have something like
"=beauty&banner=XYZ&f=". An error is being generated because the
validator is objecting to the & character. Every occurance of this
should be replaced by & the encoded version of &. This will solve
the majority of the error messages.
This can be fixed easily in the code of your site by using a small
piece of additional code. If you are using PHP scripting language for
programming your page there is a function called htmlentities() that
will do the trick automatically - if you are using an alternative
language to script your pages there will be a similar function to fix
this. I have linked the manual for the PHP function below:
http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.htmlentities.php
Every time a link is displayed on your site it should be run through
the htmlentities function in order to make the link friendly to the
validator. This can be easily added to your script before the item is
printed out onto the screen. It is difficult to help further here
without access to the script that generates your page but hopefully
you will understand what to do from the advice I have given you.
The next validation error that appears on the list seems to be "there
is no attribute border". To remove this error you should remove the
border attribute from the code and apply any styling to the border
using CSS (for example, border:none).
Upon scrolling through the list of validation errors I could find very
few that were not related to the above tow problems. Once you have
addressed the problems highlighted above please respond to this answer
and I will re-run the validation tool to fix any remaining problems.
There are excellent quick guides to common errors here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHTML#Common_errors
http://www.blackwidows.org.uk/resources/tutorials/xhtml/common-errors.html
http://www.devwebproca.com/devwebproca-44-20050722TheImportanceofHTMLXHTMLValidation.html
With regards to filling your whitespace between the two columns to the
right of the page this is *very* difficult (if not impossible) to do
as it spans two different columns which may vary in height (I can
think of a way to implement this but not a way that will not be
troublesome and actually guaranteed to work every time!). The easiest
solution here would be to combine the two columns into one and then
tackle the smaller amount of whitespace you are left with. This could
be filled with a table or banner advertising.
If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to ask
for clarification and I will do my best to respond swiftly (I am still
on my Easter break so there may be a small delay!). Please also
contact me again once you have fixed the two errors indicated above
and I will run through solutions for any further error messages on
your homepage. |
Request for Answer Clarification by
helpapoorman-ga
on
17 Apr 2006 08:47 PDT
can i give you the user/pass and have you add this code for me to fix
these problems? sacredhands at earthlink.net
by blank space, I mean: if you look at the two right columns, how
would I code google adsense, for example to appear above the two
columns like it appears here:
adjab.com
thanks
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Clarification of Answer by
palitoy-ga
on
17 Apr 2006 10:10 PDT
Unfortunately at Google Answers we are not allowed to have personal
contact with customers other than by posting information here (see
here: http://answers.google.com/answers/faq.html#postemail). It would
also be a security risk for your site should you post the information
here :-( Unfortunately you will have to attempt the re-encoding of
your site yourself or hire a programmer to do this for you (I wish I
could help as it is a simple job but impossible to describe to someone
without access to their source web pages).
With regards to the style of the Google Ads you would need to alter
the format you are currently subscribed with. I believe they have
several different formats that can be diaplayed on a page depending on
the style of your site. I do not have a Google Ads account therefore
cannot help other than by pointing you towards the Google Ads FAQ
(please remember that Google Answers Researchers are not working
FOR/AT Google):
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html&sourceid=aso&subid=ww-ww-et-asui&medium=link#17955
The way your site has been encoded is to use <DIV> instead of by using
a <TABLE> type structure, this is the more modern way of coding a
page. It separates the style of the page from the content which in
turn (in theory) makes the page easier to understand. CSS (cascading
style sheets) are then used to place the <DIV> elements in the correct
position on the page. You will therefore need to create a new <DIV>
to hold the new Google Ad content and position it using CSS above the
columns you already have placed on your page. This new <DIV> should
be formatted (using CSS) to be the same width as the two columns you
already have.
It is not an easy task to achieve for a novice programmer and can be
troublesome to get to work in all browsers (Internet Explorer,
Firefox, Opera and all the others) even for experienced programmers.
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Request for Answer Clarification by
helpapoorman-ga
on
17 Apr 2006 11:01 PDT
I have no idea what specific php script I'm adding, nor where I'm
adding it into the wordpress templates..
This can be fixed easily in the code of your site by using a small
piece of additional code. If you are using PHP scripting language for
programming your page there is a function called htmlentities() that
will do the trick automatically
This can be easily added to your script before the item is
printed out onto the screen.
these are my php files in wordpress. which ones do I add the
htmlentities script to?
* Stylesheet
* 404 Template
* searchform.php
* Single Post
* Sidebar
* Archives
* Archives
* Popup Comments
* Comments
* Footer
* Header
* Links
* Main Index Template
* Page Template
* Search Results
also, The next validation error that appears on the list seems to be "there
is no attribute border". To remove this error you should remove the
border attribute from the code and apply any styling to the border
using CSS (for example, border:none).
what CSS code do I have to add to the stylesheet, and how do I apply
it to the errors where "there is no attribute border?" example?
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Clarification of Answer by
palitoy-ga
on
17 Apr 2006 11:32 PDT
Wordpress is a blogging system that builds webpages from PHP scripts.
Like you, I have little experience in editing Wordpress scripts, they
are specific to Wordpress and require knowledge of the system in order
for them to work correctly. I do know they utilize PHP scripting so
the solution I have given will work once you determine where to add it
and I would guess the script you would have to alter would be the main
page template but without copies of this script I am not able to tell
for sure... you would have more success posting in one of the
Wordpress forums on the internet (such as
http://wordpress.org/support/). Support for Wordpress is outside the
scope of your original question and therefore cannot offer you any
support for that specific system.
With regards to the second part of your clarification, you will need
to find the line in your script that is generating the attribute
border="0" part of the webpage, again this will be in the Wordpress
script and I cannot tell you exactly where this is without access to
your scripts.
Let us assume that the tag having the border="0" attribute is <table>.
You then need to add the following code to the <head> section of your
Wordpress script or add it into one of the stylesheets that your page
is currently using.
<style type="text/css">
table {
border:none;
}
</style>
This will apply "no style" to the border of any table.
From your responses I would highly recommend getting in touch with a
programmer that is local to you. They will be able to easily perform
these modifications quickly and cheaply (they should take no longer
than a couple of hours to someone with access to your code).
Once again, I am sorry I cannot help and edit the files directly which
is the easiest way to solve this for you but we are forbidden to do so
under the Google Answers regulations.
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Request for Answer Clarification by
helpapoorman-ga
on
17 Apr 2006 12:06 PDT
Wordpress 2.0 Validator XML Need Help Cleaning Up Error Messages
look at the title of my original question. it does say wordpress 2.0,
does it not? the whole reason for asking the question was to clean up
my wordpress 2.0 validation
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Clarification of Answer by
palitoy-ga
on
18 Apr 2006 00:18 PDT
I am sorry you were unhappy with my attempts to help you but it is
very difficult to achieve anything if you are unwilling or unable to
try the solutions that I proposed. I have attempted to pinpoint the
errors that were brought up in your question and believe they would
have been sorted out if you had taken the time to provide me or a
local programmer with the source code.
The Google Answers FAQ make it clear that the researchers are
forbidden personal contact with the customers and it would have been a
HUGE security risk for you to post username/password details in a
public forum such as this. Without either of these I can only offer
you guidance in how to solve your problem and if you cannot follow
that guidance you would need to try to obtain assistance from someone
with further computer skills who can access the source files of your
site locally.
The errors on your page have NOTHING to do with Wordpress as a system
and therefore I felt I could answer your question.
Once again, I am sorry you were unhappy with the results from Google
Answers this time.
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Request for Answer Clarification by
helpapoorman-ga
on
18 Apr 2006 16:45 PDT
this question was specifically a wordpress question. you never should
have answered it in the first place. general answers about scripting
ARE OF NO HELP. which code, which file I need to edit specifically,
these solve problems. NOT YOUR GENERAL ANSWERS. AGAIN A COMPLETE WASTE
OF MONEY!!!
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Clarification of Answer by
palitoy-ga
on
19 Apr 2006 01:13 PDT
I can only apologise but if you do attempt to follow my instructions
you will find that the answer works.
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Request for Answer Clarification by
helpapoorman-ga
on
19 Apr 2006 07:43 PDT
Here's your answer: If you are using PHP scripting language for
programming your page there is a function called htmlentities() that
will do the trick automatically - if you are using an alternative
language to script your pages there will be a similar function to fix
this. I have linked the manual for the PHP function below:
http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.htmlentities.php
I'm using wordpress!!! that's free software php package. YOU HAVE NOT
TOLD ME HOW TO EDIT THE WORDPRESS FILES!!! GET A CLUE, BUDDY. your
answer was worthless and I'm asking for a refund.
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Clarification of Answer by
palitoy-ga
on
19 Apr 2006 09:16 PDT
I can only apologise again.
Wordpress is a software package that is written in the PHP programming
language. To edit the Wordpress files to ensure it outputs correctly
formatted XHTML code (what your question is asking) you would need to
use the PHP language. If I did not have a clue - as you suggest - I
would not have attempted to answer the question, I have confidence and
experience in this area. From all your responses it shows no sign at
all that you have tried anything I have suggested which makes it
impossible for me to offer any further advice.
I have attempted to resolve this situation but the answers I receive
back are aggressive. You are perfectly within your rights to ask for
a refund as per the Google Answers FAQ but I still maintain that the
answer I provided is correct. Once again, I apologise that my help
was not what you required but there is little I can do if you are not
prepared to work with me as as I have stated we are NOT allowed
personal contact with customers and CANNOT therefore do the work for
you that I have described for you (and I suspect is what you want).
Sorry, once again.
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