HTML check: The “profile” attribute on the “head” element is obsolete. To declare which “meta” terms are used in the document, instead register the names as meta extensions. To trigger specific UA behaviors, use a “link” element instead.

About This HTML Issue

The profile attribute on <head> comes from HTML 4.01 and is obsolete, so remove it, or move its URL to a <link rel="profile"> element if a tool still reads it.

In HTML 4.01, profile held one or more space-separated URLs of metadata profiles. A profile defined the <meta> names and rel values a page used, so a program reading the page could look up what they meant. Browsers never acted on it, and HTML5 dropped the attribute. The validator reports it as a warning, and the page renders the same with or without it.

The message names a replacement for each of the attribute's two old uses. A page no longer has to declare its <meta> names. The HTML standard defines names like description and generator, and anyone can register other names on the WHATWG MetaExtensions wiki page. If a program read the profile URL to decide how to handle the page, put that URL in a <link rel="profile"> element, which the validator accepts.

The attribute often comes from an older WordPress theme whose header.php prints <head profile="..."> with the URL of the XFN (XHTML Friends Network) profile. Newer WordPress default themes print the same URL in a <link rel="profile"> element instead. Edit the template so the <head> tag has no attributes. If nothing reads the profile, you can leave out the <link> too.

Invalid example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head profile="https://example.com/profiles/xfn">
    <title>My blog</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>Welcome to my blog.</p>
  </body>
</html>

Valid example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>My blog</title>
    <link rel="profile" href="https://example.com/profiles/xfn">
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>Welcome to my blog.</p>
  </body>
</html>