menomanabdulla

Posted on Jul 11, 2021

15 HTML5 best practices for beginners to master.

#html #webdev #codenewbie #beginners

Whether you are a beginner or an expert in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) it is important to follow some best practices in order to keep your HTML documents consistent and organized.

HTML5 has been around for many years now and has been stable and supported at least partially supported by most major browsers since 2014. Here I present list of best coding practices regarding HTML5 markup. Let’s get started:

File Structure

Be concerned to the project file structure from day one. It’s extremely important for mid to large scale application for batter maintenance.
Declare correct Doctype

If correct Doctype is not declared new HTML5-specific tags will not interpreted by the browser.
Write w3c valid markup

Use validator like w3c validator to check your markup and write error free more structured code. Validator will suggest you some best practice of HTML5 coding standard. I strongly recommend you to valid your code by w3c validator.
HTML5 semantic elements

Make sure correct use of the HTML5 semantic elements like: ,,,. It’s will help you to write more structured piece of code.
Meaningful img alt attribute

Always try to use “alt” attribute with meaningful text in img tag. It’s also best practice for SEO purpose.
Kebab-case class naming

Use “kebab-case” while class naming. If you don’t use any structured naming convention like, BEM convention.
Relevant selector naming

Tried to use meaningful class naming relevant to your block of –code .
Tricks: Tried to use “.noun-adjective” format.
Type attribute with link and script

Don’t need to use “type” attribute for external styleSheet and script linking in HTML5 structure.
Atomic Class

Use specific class or atomic class when needed, try to use short meaningful class name.
Variant class in parent element

Tried to added class in parent element if need give another style to the same block or need same block different style.
Complex wrapping

For better performance please tried to avoid unnecessary wrapping. It will create unnecessary node in your HTML tree and reduce performance too.
Bad Practice

Good Practice
Closing tag

It is best practice to always concern with closing starting tag even if it is self-closing tag.
Injecting external stylesheet

External stylesheet always injects in tag. Because The HTML5 specification stated a element must have a “rel” attribute and if the “rel” attribute us used, the element is restricted to the head element.
Injecting external script

External script always injects at end of the body tag.
As we know that HTML is loaded and execute line by line. So, when the browser encounters a script tag, it loads and executes the JavaScript code on the spot. This may low down the page rendering also JavaScript is often user to manipulate DOM and add new functionality to the webpage if script tag not added at end of the body tag, DOM may not be ready by that time this leading to unknown behavior.
Code Comments

It’s best practice to write human-readable code. Tried to comment your block of code. It will help you or any other developer to refactor the piece of code blocks.

Last Words

I hope you enjoy this article html5 coding guidelines and front end web development best practices. If you appreciate it or find any errors let me know in comments. Thanks for this journey & Happy Coding.

Top comments (20)

Imran Fakhrul • Jul 12 '21

Very good article for a beginner to focus on specific things. But I think Kebab-case naming, Atomic class & Variant class in parent element those are just some patterns rather than best practices. They can be easily altered with another pattern.

menomanabdulla • Jul 12 '21 • Edited

Exactly, totally agreed. For beginners it's important to come in a pattern first then move on whatever you seems best based on experience, I figured it out that way. Most importantly I tried to give message by those points that "follow some naming-convention" that extremely beneficial for personal development as well as team colab.Thank you sir, you nicely point it out.

Tamal H • Jul 12 '21 • Edited

found this comment is more informative. wow awesome!

Alvaro Montoro • Jul 11 '21

Is there an advantage of having the script at the end of the body over using defer or async in the head?

Imran Fakhrul • Jul 12 '21

The basic:

script tag's location in an HTML document makes a lot difference in terms of performance. script tag is parser blocking. So when an HTML document encounters a script tag, it stops parsing the rest of the HTML and starts downloading the JS file.

`script` in `head`:

When you load a website, it creates a great impact on UX how soon the UI appears on the screen. When you put your script tag inside head tag (or in the upper side of the HTML doc), the user will be late to see the UI and as a result the user could see a blank screen for a certain period of time.

`script` at the end:

So if it goes at the end, the HTML is already parsed and the UI will be shown to user before JS file starts downloading. Though, to interact with the UI, the JS file need to be downloaded first.

`async`, `defer` in `script` tag:

When you set async, defer in a script tag, this file is considered as less important for the UI, so the file won't block the HTML file from parsing. It will be downloaded asynchronously. So it does not create any effect where you put this kind of script.
But still I think it's better to put it at the end as HTTP/1 can only make 6 requests at a time, so there is no use of start downloading a less important (async, defer-ed) script at the first place.

menomanabdulla • Jul 12 '21

awesome! explained in-details. Your effort is admirable, love you man <3

Siddiq Nx • Jul 12 '21

The scripts get downloaded as and when the parser encounters them. So having them in head will start downloading them earlier. Scripts that is important for user interaction can be put in the head with async or defer. Scripts like analytics etc. can be included at the end as it could take up potential download bandwidth needed for other important resources like CSS etc. if included earlier.

menomanabdulla • Jul 12 '21

@siddiqnx already explained nicely, Thanks buddy. I already added some point in article. If you have some super important script(like API request) that really need to inject in head you can inject them in head. There is always some scripts those are less important to load at the beginning you can put them in end of the body that will assist you to load your DOM without any unexpected behavior. I hope you got it, Thanks.

Daine Mawer • Jul 12 '21

Very cool. You missed our the element in the HTML semantics section. That’s a very important element! You may also want to add that when using HTML5 semantic elements, you’ll always want to ensure that they have an aria-label attribute for accessibility. Nice work!