HTML vs. XHTML

Today web design sees many innovative technologies rule the industry. HTML, ASP.NET, php, CSS, JavaScript, VBScript, etc have upgraded themselves to deliver quality websites. Many global organisations are spending millions of dollars in the research and development of new technologies. As a result, new technologies have sprung up and the older ones have upgraded themselves. XHTML is one of them. People consider XHTML better than HTML. XHTML stands for Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a blend of XML (Extensible Markup Language) and HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). It has tags and attributes similar to HTML. Let us find the similarities and differences between HTML and XHTML.

The Document Type Definitions

Document Type Definitions (DTD) is the method to define the document type. It states the standards the web page is following.Web Design India HTML and XHTML have different DTDs.



The words ‘transitional’, ‘loose’, ‘frameset’, etc can replace ‘strict’ in the above definitions, according to the version of the HTML and XHMTL used.

The Markup

HTML has a clearer markup than XHTML. HTML still supports basic tags and is easier to program, edit and update than XHTML. Moreover, the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) supports HTML as it is more compliant towards the web standards. XHTML on the other is an off-standard language according to W3C.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) values for HTML and XHTML are the same. Some people might say that XHTML is more SEO friendly than HTML, but it is not true. Both provide equal levels of SEO to a website.

Major Differences between HTML and XHTML

The major differences between HTML and XHTML are –

1. XHTML requires closed sets of empty tags but HTML does not.

2. A XHTML page is in lowercase unlike HTML that you can write in both uppercase and lowercase.

3. You should close all the attribute values with quotes (double or single).SEO Service India HTML does not require such closing.

XHTML however is not a replacement for HTML, as most of you might think. Neither is it a newer version of HTML. Both of them are two different standards, XHTML evolves from the combination of HTML and XML. The newer version of HTML is HTML5 whereas XHTML 2 replaces the XHTML 1.1 used earlier. There is only one exceptional benefit of using XHTML over HTML. XHTML is highly compatible to ASP.NET and can employ advanced markup math.

It is totally up to you to choose your preferred standard. You can stick to HTML and move to HTML5 or can choose XHTML if you use advanced framework technologies. The main motive is to design a great website that appeals to the masses.