This is the third episode in the series exploring the different components that make up a website, and today’s focus is on the often-overlooked but vitally important head element in HTML.

Nathan and David kick things off by admitting that, like many web professionals, they haven’t thought deeply about the head for quite some time, despite its massive impact on performance, accessibility, and SEO. Drawing from their own experiences as CMS users and enthusiasts, they dig into what the head is, the key tags you can (and must) use, and which practices are still essential in modern web development.

They cover everything from the basic meta tags you need for setting character encoding, viewport scaling, and page titles, to why the order of scripts and styles in your head can dramatically affect site speed and user experience. David explains some of the technical nuances, like choosing between inline styles and external stylesheets and recent updates that now allow for SVG favicons with light and dark mode support, thanks to the latest version of Safari.

They also discuss SEO considerations, such as canonical tags, language declarations, and social sharing metadata, along with hands-on tips to help you validate your sites and avoid common mistakes, like using special characters in titles that may trip up screen readers or search engines.

If you build or maintain websites and haven’t recently double-checked your head element, this episode is well worth your time.

By the end, Nathan and David will have you rethinking and refreshing your approach to the head of your HTML, ensuring you’re setting up your sites for the best possible technical, SEO, and accessibility outcomes.