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Charset & Language Checker

Check doctype, character encoding and the html lang attribute.

Free, no signup. We fetch the page once and read what your server sends back.

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What this checks

Three small declarations that cause outsized problems when missing: the doctype, the character set and the page language. Between them they decide whether your apostrophes render, whether screen readers pronounce your content correctly, and whether search engines know what language you are writing in.

  • Doctype declaration
  • Character encoding
  • html lang attribute

How to act on the result

  • Use . Anything else triggers quirks mode in browsers.
  • Declare UTF-8. Missing encoding is why smart quotes turn into mojibake.
  • Set lang, for example lang="en-GB". It matters for screen readers and for international targeting.

Frequently asked

Does the lang attribute affect SEO?

Indirectly. It helps search engines confirm the language and it is a WCAG requirement, because screen readers use it to pick pronunciation rules.

What if my charset is missing?

Browsers guess, and usually guess right, but accented characters and curly quotes can render as garbage. Always declare UTF-8.

Does the doctype matter?

Without it browsers use quirks mode, an emulation of 1990s rendering behaviour that breaks modern CSS in subtle ways.

Should lang be en or en-GB?

Either works. en-GB is more precise and worth using when spelling and terminology are British.

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