5 FAH-8 H-420
required elements and tags
(CT:WEB-31; 07-10-2024)
(Office of Origin: DT/OPS)
(Updated only to revise Office of Origin)
5 FAH-8 H-421 hypertext mark-up language (HTML) File
(CT:WEB-1; 09-29-2005)
a. All new or revised HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML) files must begin with a DOCTYPE statement that identifies the version of HTML being used. It is necessary for proper validation of both the HTML code and any Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) files that are being used. Do not code Web pages using deprecated tags. Use the strict form of the DOCTYPE statement (first example). If it is necessary to use deprecated tags, the transitional DOCTYPE statement (second example) may be used.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html4/strict.dtd">
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html4/loose.dtd">
b. When coding with Extensible HyperText Mark-up Language (XHTML), the appropriate strict, transitional and Document Type Definition (DTD) DOCTYPE statement should be used.
5 FAH-8 H-422 HEAD SECTION
(CT:WEB-31; 07-10-2024)
5 FAH-8 H-422.1 Title Tag
(CT:WEB-1; 09-29-2005)
The head section must contain a short title that is descriptive of the page. The title is displayed by the browser when viewing the Web page and on the top of each page when printing the Web page.
<HEAD>
<TITLE>5 FAH-8 H-420 Required Elements and Tags</TITLE>
</HEAD>
5 FAH-8 H-422.2 Meta Tags
(CT:WEB-1; 09-29-2005)
a. Content-Type (required) – extending the content-type to include the character set will cause browsers to load the appropriate character set before displaying the web page. If you are using a software application to generate web pages, it may automatically include a content-type meta tag. If in doubt, use ISO-8859-1 as the character set.
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
b. Description (optional) – the description provides a short summary of the Web page content. The content should be kept under 200 characters.
<META name="description" content="Policy and guidance for creating and managing Department websites.">
c. Keywords (optional) – the keyword tag is ignored by most global search engines but may be included if desired. As the name implies, it is a list of words. There is no way to indicate a phrase so the concept of “web development” as the example, it’s treated as “web” and “development”. If used, the content should be kept under 1000 characters, as most search engines will ignore anything over that length.
<META name="keywords" content="policy web development">
d. Robots (optional) – the robot tag is used to control indexing of the Web page by search engines. To indicate the page should not be indexed, use:
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX">
5 FAH-8 H-423 BODY
(CT:WEB-31; 07-10-2024)
5 FAH-8 H-423.1 Contact Information
(CT:WEB-1; 09-29-2005)
a. Each Web page must include information necessary to contact the website team or person responsible for the content of the page (see 5 FAM 773 c). The recommended method is a mailto: link at the bottom of the page. The subject parameter in the reference can be used to identify the specific Web page.
b. The html code
<p> Please send comments/questions to
<a href="mailto:IRM_BPC_RG@state.gov?subject=Web%20Page%20Comments"> IRM_BPC_RG@state.gov</a></p>
where "%20" is the hexadecimal code for a blank space is displayed as:
Please send comments/questions to IRM_BPC_RG@state.gov
and the link generates an e-mail message for the user to fill out and send. For people who use webmail and cannot generate an e-mail message from the link, the full e-mail address should be included as part of the link text.
5 FAH-8 H-424 Disallowed Tags
(CT:WEB-1; 09-29-2005)
a. As of HTML version 4.01, there are three obsolete tags. Although older browsers will display them properly, newer browser versions will ignore them. The obsolete tags LISTING PLAINTEXT, and XMP must not be used on the Department of State Web sites.
b. Several tags are listed as deprecated in HTML version 4.01. A deprecated tag has been outdated by newer constructs and may become obsolete in future versions of HTML. Webmasters should avoid using the following deprecated tags:
(1) APPLET;
(2) BASEFONT;
(3) CENTER;
(4) DIR;
(5) FONT;
(6) ISINDEX;
(7) MENU;
(8) S;
(9) STRIKE; and
(10) U.
5 FAH-8 H-425 Through H-429 Unassigned
(CT:WEB-1; 09-29-2005)