# Optional Closing Tags in HTML

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/optional-closing-tags-in-html/219798>\
**Category:** web dev\
**Created:** [March 20, 2007, 8:50am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/optional-closing-tags-in-html/219798 "2007-03-20T08:50:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Carrym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Carrym](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Carrym)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 8:50am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/optional-closing-tags-in-html/219798/1 "2007-03-20T08:50:16Z")

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For as long as I’ve been validating web pages, I never realized that the closing \</head\> tag was optional in HTML. I feel as if I’ve missed the boat at times. 😉

While I’m all for trimming excess code, I just cannot for the life of me strip out closing tags because they are optional in HTML. I’d be concerned that something, somewhere would not parse the document correctly if I removed the closing \</head\> element.

Are my concerns unfounded?