Help with a Code Question

So I ran my website www.usalegalcasinos.com through a W3C validator and I have 34 errors - ugg!

A couple of them are for having an unclosed p tag. I havent used a p tag in my code but when I look at the source code it is there?? I use a php and can't understand how this tag is getting in there. The site is in wordpress.

Below is the code I wrote and the second is the code from viewing the source. Anyone know how the p tag could show up? In the second part of code I have bolded the p tag that mysteriously shows up.

My Code:

<hr>
<div class="shortright">
<ul>
<li>Bonus: $8000</li>
<li>Software: RTG</li>
<li>Established: 2011</li>
<li>Licensed: Curacao</li>
</ul>
<a href="/grand-parker-casino/review/"><img height="33" src="/images/button31.jpg" width="120" alt="Grand Parker Casino Review"/></a>
</div>

What shows up when I view the source:

<hr/>
<divclass="shortright">
<ul>
<li>Bonus: $8000</li>
<li>Software: RTG</li>
<li>Established: 2011</li>
<li>Licensed: Curacao</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="/grand-parker-casino/review/"><imgheight="33"src="/images/button31.jpg"width="120"alt="Grand Parker Casino Review"/></a>
</div>

And here is what is in my wordpress page when you look at it through the text option

<?php include(ABSPATH.'/wp-includes/phps/grandparker.php'); ?>

So you can see I have not addded that p anywhere - wth???

You need a space:
<p><ahref="/

after the "a"

I am guessing this is the home page let me run it through and look at the error page.

Rick
Universal4

Yes it is the homepage. There is a space there I guess when I copied it over somehow it was removed. It is just weird that I cant figure this out. That dang "p" just somehow shows up which desnt make sense.

Yea it appears you have a lot of paragraphs open....

There are a number of images, mostly the download button if I recall that just say src= and not img src=

That would likely fix many of the errors....xhtml is a lot less forgiving then html....

Rick
Universal4

Yes those open paragraphs have me puzzeled though because in my code they are not there. I am fixing the other ones that one I am dumbfounded....

Hello UPB,

Are you using some sort of text editor in your WP backend?
If yes, what kind of editor?

The </p> tag is closed in every <div class="logo"></div>.

<div class="logo">
"p" opening tag missing here ---> <img height="60" src="/images/luckyredlogo.png" width="121" alt="Lucky Red Casino"/></p> <--- here
<p><a href="http://www.usalegalcasinos.com/lucky-red-casino/review/">Lucky Red Casino Review</a></p>
<p> <a href="/lucky-red-casino/download/"><img alt="Lucky Red Casino Download" height="32" src="/images/downloadred.png" width="153"></a></div>


Take a look there, for every div class "logo" ;)

Cheers

Dave

I figured it out. I use an automatic link feature so for example when "Classy Coin Casino review" is written it automatically links to that page. It actually was an a tag that was closed late in all the php's that caused a conflict.

Thanks for looking guys

Some times some pages just have trouble validating even when the code should be correct....

This is especially true with center tags....

Rick
Universal4

Wordpress adds <p> automatically to the text....

and you need to add more spaces before every red part in <imgheight="33"src="/images/button31.jpg"width="120"alt="Grand Parker Casino Review"/></a>

and agreed: W3C validator finds a lot, also things wihich are correct

I think if I ran my sites through a W3C validator, it would explode.

No Rob, you would probably break the w3c site....I know it would not be on purpose or anything....just that it would probably happen.....

LOL

Agree with elgoog on this, it doesn't hurt to run pages through it once in a while and clean up most of the errors when you can, but sometimes you just can't get them all.

In his exapmple above, I think you also need one here in red:
Review" /></a>

Unless I am mistaken, I think you need the space in order to "self close" that bracket.

Rick
Universal4

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by universal4

Unless I am mistaken, I think you need the space in order to "self close" that bracket.

---

Quote ;)

I did run a W3C test today, just for fun, and it was horribly inaccurate, identifying missing/extra <P> tags, where there were none. Not enormously useful.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FictionNet

I did run a W3C test today, just for fun, and it was horribly inaccurate, identifying missing/extra <P> tags, where there were none. Not enormously useful.

---

It is called "cascading errors", one error creates more (false)code errors.
Start at the top of the list and work down, as you fix errors at the top of the list, other errors will also go away.
The more "severe" the error, the more false error reports it will generate farther on down the page.

Code errors WILL effect your SEO with google... as googlebot sees the same things as the w3c validator.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lots0

It is called "cascading errors", one error creates more (false)code errors.
Start at the top of the list and work down, as you fix errors at the top of the list, other errors will also go away.
The more "severe" the error, the more false error reports it will generate farther on down the page.

---

I agree. Try to fix the first "error" on list and revalidate the url.

I just use the html validator addon for firefox and then view the page source.

The fact is google and the other search engines will just not rank sites with poor/bad code for 'competitive' search queries.

Poor/bad code means the site will most likely load slow, hang or display improperly, a real no no for google.

Poor/Bad code (according to google) equates to a site that does not care about "quality", and right now google is all about quality.

A lot of html errors on a page will also cause googlebot(and other lesser bots) to stop indexing the page when they can't parse all the html errors.

Just a friendly word of advice, your code DOES matter to SEO...

Just curious, I do have few sites which don't pass W3C validation but are still able to rank on Google. What's the threshold here? I mean few minor errors like <p> tag and all are acceptable? Also, do you just do HTML validation or you should do CSS validation as well?