HTML Validation

Element “head” is missing a required instance of child element “title”.

head
title

About This HTML Issue

The <head> section of an HTML document contains metadata about the document, and as a minimum it must include a <title> tag defining the document title.

Common causes for this issue are forgetting to define the <title>, or duplicated <head> sections where one of them does not include the title.

Here’s an example of a minimal HTML document including the title:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Don't panic! This is the title</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p></p>
  </body>
</html>

Last reviewed: October 27, 2022

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Related W3C Validator Issues (6)

Bad start tag in “iframe” in “noscript” in “head”.

There is an iframe tag inside a noscript tag that is itself inside the head section of the HTML document. This is not allowed because an iframe cannot be nested inside the head section.

To fix this issue, you may move the noscript section that contains the iframe tag outside of the head section, and ensure that it is placed within the body section of the HTML document.

For example, this is invalid HTML because the head section cannot contain iframe elements:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>My webpage</title>
    <noscript>
      <p>Please enable JavaScript to view this website</p>
      <iframe src="https://example.com/"></iframe>
    </noscript>
<!-- Other meta tags and styles go here -->

  </head>
  <body>
<!-- Rest of your webpage content goes here -->

  </body>
</html>

Moving the noscript inside the body section fixes the issue, as that’s where iframe elements belong:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>My webpage</title>
<!-- Other meta tags and styles go here -->

  </head>
  <body>
    <noscript>
      <p>Please enable JavaScript to view this website</p>
      <iframe src="https://example.com/"></iframe>
    </noscript>
<!-- Rest of your webpage content goes here -->

  </body>
</html>

Bad start tag in “p” in “noscript” in “head”.

A <p> element cannot be placed inside a <noscript> tag within the <head> section.

According to the HTML specification, the <head> element must only contain metadata, such as <title>, <meta>, <link>, <script>, and <style>. The <noscript> element is allowed in <head>, but it must only contain elements that are valid in head, not flow content like <p>. The <p> (paragraph) tag is flow content meant for the <body>. For fallback content in <head>, only metadata elements are allowed.

Incorrect example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>Example</title>
    <noscript>
      <p>JavaScript is disabled.</p>
    </noscript>
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

Correct approaches:

Remove the <p> from <noscript> in <head>:
- If you must include fallback styles or links in case JavaScript is disabled, use only metadata tags.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>Example</title>
    <noscript>
      <link rel="stylesheet" href="no-js.css">
    </noscript>
  </head>
  <body>
  </body>
</html>

Place textual fallback content in the <body> instead:
- Moving the <noscript> block with flow content (such as <p>) to the body ensures validity.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>Example</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <noscript>
      <p>JavaScript is disabled.</p>
    </noscript>
  </body>
</html>

Remember: Do not use <p> (or any flow content) in <noscript> inside <head>. Use such content only in the body.

Element “title” must not be empty.

The <title> element, used to define the document’s title, is required and must not be empty.

Example:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Automated Website Validator</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>...</p>
  </body>
</html>

“meta” element between “head” and “body”.

Start tag “head” seen but an element of the same type was already open.

head

An opening <head> tag has been found in an incorrect place. Check that there’s only a <head> tag in the document.

This issue can happen because the expected closing tag </head> was misspelled as <head>, as in this example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="">
  <head>
    <title>Test</title>
  <head>

  <body>
  </body>
</html>

Or, it could happen because another <head>...</head> section was nested inside a previous one:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="">
  <head>
    <title>Test</title>
    <head>
    </head>
  </head>

  <body>
  </body>
</html>

Stray start tag “head”.

A <head> start tag has been found in an unexpected place in the document structure. Check that the <head> section appears before the <body> section, and that is not duplicated.

The <head> section of an HTML document is the container of metadata about the document, and must appear before the <body> section. A common cause of this issue is duplicated <head> sections.

Here is an example of a minimal HTML document structure:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Test</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p></p>
  </body>
</html>

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