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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> <html lang="en"><head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title>Website Quality Alert - Title declaration before character encoding declaration</title> <meta name="referrer" content="unsafe-url"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://w3techs.com/s45.css"> <body> <script type="text/javascript"> var _paq = window._paq = window._paq || []; _paq.push(['trackPageView']); _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); (function() { var u="https://m.q-success.com/"; _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'mtp']); _paq.push(['setSiteId', '2']); var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.src=u+'mtj'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); })(); </script> <noscript><p><img src="https://m.q-success.com/mtp?idsite=2&rec=1" style="border:0" alt=""></p></noscript> <div id=doc3> <div id=hd> <div id=hdl><a href="https://w3techs.com/"><img src="https://w3techs.com/logo1.gif" alt="W3Techs" width=150 height=50></a></div> <div id=hdc style="min-height:94px;height:auto;text-align:center"> <div class=banner><script>var _ama_pid=_ama_pid||Math.floor(Math.random()*2147483647);document.write('\x3Cscript src="https://b.w3techs.com/ajs/2/2/' + _ama_pid + '/' + encodeURIComponent(window.location) + '">\x3C/script>');</script></div><a class=no_und href="https://b.w3techs.com/">advertise here</a></div> <div id=hdr><b>provided by<br><a href="https://q-success.com/web_services">Q-Success</a></b></div> </div> <div id=mn> <a href="https://w3techs.com/">Home</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies">Technologies</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/reports">Reports</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/apidoc">API</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/sites">Sites</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/quality">Quality</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/users">Users</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/blog">Blog</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/forum">Forum</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/faq">FAQ</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/search">Search</a> </div><div class=feat1><p>Featured products and services<a style="font-size:80%;font-weight:normal;position:absolute;right:1em;" href="https://b.w3techs.com/">advertise here</a></p><script>var _ama_pid=_ama_pid||Math.floor(Math.random()*2147483647);document.write('\x3Cscript src="https://b.w3techs.com/ajs/2/5/' + _ama_pid + '/' + encodeURIComponent(window.location) + '">\x3C/script>');</script></div><div id=bd><table class=tech><tr><td class=tech_sel> </td><td class=tech_main> <h1>Website Quality Alert</h1> <h2>Title declaration before character encoding declaration</h2> <p><p><strong>Problem:</strong></p> <p>The character encoding for the web page is defined in an HTML meta tag, but that meta tag appears only after the title of the web page is defined. It is recommended that meta tags are defined before any visible text in the HTML head.</p> <p>Example: instead of this</p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;"> </span><span style="font-family: Courier New;"> </span><span style="font-family: Courier New;"> </span><span style="font-family: Courier New;"><title>Pelé was a fine footballer</title></span><br> <span style="font-family: Courier New;"><<span class="start-tag">meta</span><span class="attribute-name"> http-equiv</span>=<span class="attribute-value">"Content-Type" </span><span class="attribute-name">content</span>=<span class="attribute-value">"text/html; charset=</span>UTF-8<span class="attribute-value">"</span>></span></p> <p>write this:</p> <p style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;"><<span class="start-tag">meta</span><span class="attribute-name"> http-equiv</span>=<span class="attribute-value">"Content-Type" </span><span class="attribute-name">content</span>=<span class="attribute-value">"text/html; charset=</span></span><span style="font-family: Courier New;">UTF-8</span><span style="font-family: Courier New;"><span class="attribute-value">"</span>><br> </span><span style="font-family: Courier New;"> </span><span style="font-family: Courier New;"><title>Pelé was a fine footballer</title></span><br> <span style="font-family: Courier New;"> </span><span style="font-family: Courier New;"> </span></p> <p>in your HTML text.</p> <p>We do not show this alert when the encoding has been defined in the HTTP header or in the XML header, or when there are only ASCII characters in the title.</p> <p><strong>Impact:</strong></p> <p>Browsers may have difficulties showing the title of the page correctly. In the example above, the title may be displayed as "Pel♦ was a fine footballer", or something similar.</p> <p>Although most modern browsers would try to apply the encoding before the declaration, one should keep in mind that the web is more and more surfed using devices such as mobile phones, game consoles or TV sets, which may have less capable and error tolerant browsers.</p> <p>Additionally, search engines may not recognize the title of the page correctly, so that people interested in your site's topics may not find it.</p> <p><strong>Recommendation:</strong></p> <p>Always specify the character encoding before the title definition and before any other visible text.</p></td><td class=tech_add> </td></tr></table> </div> <div id=ft> <a href="https://w3techs.com/about" class=no_und rel=nofollow>About Us</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/disclaimer" class=no_und rel=nofollow>Disclaimer</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/terms_of_use" class=no_und rel=nofollow>Terms of Use</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/privacy_policy" class=no_und rel=nofollow>Privacy Policy</a> <a href="https://b.w3techs.com/" class=no_und>Advertising</a> <a href="https://w3techs.com/feedback" class=no_und rel=nofollow>Contact</a> </div> <div id=social_ft> W3Techs on   <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/w3techs"><img loading=lazy src="https://w3techs.com/pictures/LinkedIn.svg" alt="LinkedIn"> LinkedIn</a> <a rel="me" href="https://techhub.social/@w3techs"><img loading=lazy src="https://w3techs.com/pictures/Mastodon.svg" alt="Mastodon"> Mastodon</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/w3techs.com"><img loading=lazy src="https://w3techs.com/pictures/Bluesky.png" alt="Bluesky"> Bluesky</a> </div> <div id=cp>Copyright © 2009-2025 Q-Success<br><br> </div></div>