Why and How to Write Minimal and Valid HTML, a Link Guide

If you’re interested in writing HTML that is as compact as possible for a payload as small as possible, and in writing HTML that is error-free and conforms to the HTML standard, then this is a link guide for you. Specializing in minimal and valid HTML, it refers to some of my writings about these subjects.

Why Minimal HTML

• HTML and Performance: Leave Out Optional Tags and Quotes
• Write HTML, the HTML Way (Not the XHTML Way)
• The Magic of the Most Minimal HTML Possible (and Why We Don’t Make Use of It)
• A Short Guide to Minimal Web Development

How to Write Minimal HTML

• Optional HTML: Everything You Need to Know
• The Most Minimal Valid HTML Document
• The HTML History and Optimization Cheat Sheet
• HTML Minifier Next (a Maintained Fork of HTML Minifier)
• An HTML Optimizer’s Config for [HTML Minifier] * Minimal Social Markup—just for social markup

Why Valid HTML

• 2025: 0 of the Global Top 200 Websites Use Valid HTML—to illustrate the pervasiveness of HTML non-conformance (i.e., of invalid HTML)
• The Two Great Things About Validation (and Conformance)
• The 3-Second Frontend Developer Test
• We Need to Talk More About Conformance, if We Want to Stop Fantasy HTML
  • How Often Should We Speak About HTML Conformance?
• On the Uniting Power of a Commitment to HTML Conformance

How to Write Valid HTML

• HTML Conformance: A Comparison of 6.5 npm Validator Packages (With 1.5 Recommendations)

(You can find more articles about minimalism and conformance on Frontend Dogma.)

What Else to Consider for HTML Optimization

• Examples of HTML optimization—my ebook series
• The 3 Ground Rules for Writing HTML
• The 6 Ways of Writing HTML (and Their Combinations)
• What Is HTML Optimization? What Is It Not?

Enjoy writing minimal and valid HTML!