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Good HTML does more than display correctly: it gives content and controls the right meaning, structure, and behavior. Use elements for their intended purposes, keep the document’s reading order logical, and check both the code and the experience people get from it.
What good HTML means
Good HTML uses features defined by the HTML specification, uses them as intended, and follows the structural rules browsers rely on to parse a page. That helps browsers and assistive technologies present information in line with the author’s intent. W3C’s Technique H88 describes these parts of conformance.
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A page can look polished and still have poor markup. Visual appearance alone does not tell you whether a heading is actually marked as a heading, whether a control is operable by keyboard, or whether a screen reader can identify the page’s language.
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Choose elements for what they mean
Use an element because of its purpose, not simply because its default appearance is convenient. Headings identify sections, lists group related items, navigation landmarks identify navigation, links take users to destinations, and buttons perform actions. Semantic elements expose structure and native behavior that browsers and assistive technologies can use. MDN explains this in its guide to HTML as a basis for accessibility.
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Use buttons for actions and links for destinations
A real <button> has keyboard activation built in. A <div> styled to look like a button does not gain that behavior just because it resembles one. Likewise, use a link when activating it should navigate to a destination. If the element’s purpose is clear from its type, users and browser tools have a better starting point for interacting with it.
Use headings and lists to expose organization
Mark a heading with a heading element rather than styling an ordinary paragraph to look large. Mark a genuine list as a list instead of using line breaks or decorative characters to imitate one. This lets people who navigate by headings or lists understand the page’s organization without depending on visual styling.
Keep the source order logical
Write the document so that reading it from top to bottom makes sense. The source order is the sequence assistive technologies encounter, even when CSS visually rearranges items. A page whose visual layout suggests one sequence but whose source presents another can be confusing for people who do not perceive that layout. W3C’s accessibility tips and MDN’s accessibility guide both emphasize meaningful structure and order.
When you change layout with CSS, check the page without relying on that visual placement: does the content still make sense in source order, and does keyboard navigation follow a sensible sequence?
Declare the document language
Set a valid language tag on the root <html> element. For an English-language page, for example:
<html lang="en">
The language declaration helps screen readers determine how to pronounce and announce text. MDN documents the HTML document root element, and the WHATWG HTML Standard encourages authors to identify the document language.
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Make images, links, and form controls understandable
- Informative images: provide alternative text that conveys the image’s relevant information. An image that contributes no information may need different handling from one that communicates a fact or instruction.
- Links: write link text that makes sense in its surrounding context. Avoid labels that provide no clue about the destination when read on their own.
- Form controls: associate a label with each control so people can identify what information it expects.
- Interactive elements: ensure they can be used with a keyboard, and prefer native controls rather than recreating them from generic elements.
These are among the practical authoring recommendations in W3C’s tips for developing for web accessibility. MDN also covers accessible links and form labels in its guide to HTML and accessibility.
Use meaningful regions to help people navigate
Page structure should communicate how content is organized, not merely how it looks. Meaningful regions and relationships can help people orient themselves and move through a page. W3C’s Page Structure Tutorial explains how HTML and WAI-ARIA can support navigation and orientation. Start with the appropriate HTML structure; add ARIA only when it is needed to express information that the HTML alone does not provide.
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Validate the markup, then review its meaning
An HTML validator can help find undefined features and structural or parsing problems. Fixing those issues is useful, but a clean validation result does not prove that you chose the right element or that the content communicates what you intend. W3C’s H88 technique notes that automated or heuristic checks can assist, while some judgments about proper use still require human review.
A practical review checklist
- Are the elements appropriate for their purpose, rather than chosen only for appearance?
- Do headings and lists represent the actual organization of the content?
- Does the source order make sense when read from beginning to end?
- Is the page language declared on the root
<html>element? - Do informative images have useful alternatives, and do form controls have associated labels?
- Can users understand links and operate interactive controls with a keyboard?
- After correcting validator findings, does the page still make sense to a person using it?
MDN puts the goal plainly: “The goal isn’t ‘all or nothing’; every improvement you can make will help the cause of accessibility.”
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