Lesson 26: Final Tips
Congratulations, you have now reached the final lesson.
You have learned a lot and you are now capable of making your own websites! However, what you have learned are the basics and there is still a lot more to be mastered. But you now have a good foundation from which to build on.
In this last lesson, you will get some final tips:
Tip #1
Remember that HTML5 is still fairly new and that some elements and attributes are only partially supported by browsers. Make sure you check that what you're building is mostly supported on the major browsers and then test it out!
Stick to the standards and validate your pages. This cannot be stressed enough: Always write clean XHTML, use a DTD and validate your pages using the W3C Validator. It's easy, fast, and reliable.
Tip #2
Your website should still be all about content. HTML is your tool for sharing and presenting information on the Internet, so make sure there is information to present. Pretty pages may look nice but most people use the Internet to find information. There is no substitute for good content.
Tip #3
Avoid overloading your pages with heavy images and other fancy stuff you have found on the Internet. It slows down the loading of the page and could be confusing for visitors. Pages that take more than 20 seconds to load can lose up to 50% of their visitors.
Tip #4
Use the right element for the right content. Those semantic elements (<header>, <footer>, <article>, etc.) aren't merely for show. Use them appropriately and minimize your use of the not-so-semantic <div> element. If you start abusing the tags, you'll find yourself in a mess down the road.
Tip #5
Remember to add your website to search engines/directories so people other than your closest family can find and enjoy it. On the front page of all search engines, you will find a link to add new pages. The most important is Google, but there are also others like Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go, Webopedia, Dogpile, and Ask (Ask Jeeves).
Tip #6
In this tutorial, you have learned to use Notepad, which is a simple and very easy to use editor, but perhaps you will find it helpful to use a more advanced editor which gives a better overview and more possibilities. You can find a summary and reviews of different editors on Download.com.
So now I know everything?
You have learned a lot and you are now capable of making your own websites! However, what you have learned are the basics and there is still a lot more to be mastered. But you now have a good foundation from which to build on.
How do I learn more?
First of all, it is important that you continue to work and experiment with the things you have learned in this tutorial. Study other people's websites and if you find something you like see how it was made with "View Source" (Click "View" in the menu in your browser and choose "Source").
Search the Internet for examples and articles on HTML. There are lots of websites with great contents on HTML.
Read and ask questions in the Forums. This is where you meet the real experts from whom you can learn a lot.
Last, but not least, you should — whenever you feel ready — continue learning CSS in our CSS Tutorial and JavaScript in our JavaScript Tutorial.
The only thing left is to wish you hours of fun with your new friend, HTML.
See you on the Internet :-)
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