Trying to Validate so I can use Javascript

Question

I've been trying to validate my page (I use SquirrelCart) so that way I can get Quick Total to work. I have gotten it down from 35 errors to 18, however I'm rather confused with some of the errors

Page: http://www.victorianwinter.com/store.php/products/anwen-fruitparfait

Validation Output: 18 Errors

Error Line 161, Column 71: document type does not allow element "a" here; missing one of "dt", "dd" start-tag

…f="victorianwinter.com/store.php" style="text-decoration: none" ><dt/> Blog</a>

✉

The mentioned element is not allowed to appear in the context in which you've placed it; the other mentioned elements are the only ones that are both allowed there and can contain the element mentioned. This might mean that you need a containing element, or possibly that you've forgotten to close a previous element.

One possible cause for this message is that you have attempted to put a block-level element (such as "<p>" or "<table>") inside an inline element (such as "<a>", "<span>", or "<font>").
Error Line 161, Column 76: document type does not allow element "dt" here

…f="victorianwinter.com/store.php" style="text-decoration: none" ><dt/> Blog</a>

✉

The element named above was found in a context where it is not allowed. This could mean that you have incorrectly nested elements -- such as a "style" element in the "body" section instead of inside "head" -- or two elements that overlap (which is not allowed).

One common cause for this error is the use of XHTML syntax in HTML documents. Due to HTML's rules of implicitly closed elements, this error can create cascading effects. For instance, using XHTML's "self-closing" tags for "meta" and "link" in the "head" section of a HTML document may cause the parser to infer the end of the "head" section and the beginning of the "body" section (where "link" and "meta" are not allowed; hence the reported error).
Error Line 162, Column 85: document type does not allow element "a" here; missing one of "dt", "dd" start-tag

…ickr.com/photos/victorianwinter" style="text-decoration: none"><dt/> Flickr</a>

✉

The mentioned element is not allowed to appear in the context in which you've placed it; the other mentioned elements are the only ones that are both allowed there and can contain the element mentioned. This might mean that you need a containing element, or possibly that you've forgotten to close a previous element.

One possible cause for this message is that you have attempted to put a block-level element (such as "<p>" or "<table>") inside an inline element (such as "<a>", "<span>", or "<font>").
Error Line 162, Column 90: document type does not allow element "dt" here

…ickr.com/photos/victorianwinter" style="text-decoration: none"><dt/> Flickr</a>

✉

The element named above was found in a context where it is not allowed. This could mean that you have incorrectly nested elements -- such as a "style" element in the "body" section instead of inside "head" -- or two elements that overlap (which is not allowed).

One common cause for this error is the use of XHTML syntax in HTML documents. Due to HTML's rules of implicitly closed elements, this error can create cascading effects. For instance, using XHTML's "self-closing" tags for "meta" and "link" in the "head" section of a HTML document may cause the parser to infer the end of the "head" section and the beginning of the "body" section (where "link" and "meta" are not allowed; hence the reported error).
Error Line 163, Column 86: document type does not allow element "a" here; missing one of "dt", "dd" start-tag

…book.com/VictorianWinterDolls" style="text-decoration: none"><dt/> Facebook</a>

✉

The mentioned element is not allowed to appear in the context in which you've placed it; the other mentioned elements are the only ones that are both allowed there and can contain the element mentioned. This might mean that you need a containing element, or possibly that you've forgotten to close a previous element.

One possible cause for this message is that you have attempted to put a block-level element (such as "<p>" or "<table>") inside an inline element (such as "<a>", "<span>", or "<font>").
Error Line 163, Column 91: document type does not allow element "dt" here

…book.com/VictorianWinterDolls" style="text-decoration: none"><dt/> Facebook</a>

✉

The element named above was found in a context where it is not allowed. This could mean that you have incorrectly nested elements -- such as a "style" element in the "body" section instead of inside "head" -- or two elements that overlap (which is not allowed).

One common cause for this error is the use of XHTML syntax in HTML documents. Due to HTML's rules of implicitly closed elements, this error can create cascading effects. For instance, using XHTML's "self-closing" tags for "meta" and "link" in the "head" section of a HTML document may cause the parser to infer the end of the "head" section and the beginning of the "body" section (where "link" and "meta" are not allowed; hence the reported error).
Error Line 164, Column 77: document type does not allow element "a" here; missing one of "dt", "dd" start-tag

…//twitter.com/victorianwinter" style="text-decoration: none" ><dt/> Twitter</a>

✉

The mentioned element is not allowed to appear in the context in which you've placed it; the other mentioned elements are the only ones that are both allowed there and can contain the element mentioned. This might mean that you need a containing element, or possibly that you've forgotten to close a previous element.

One possible cause for this message is that you have attempted to put a block-level element (such as "<p>" or "<table>") inside an inline element (such as "<a>", "<span>", or "<font>").
Error Line 164, Column 82: document type does not allow element "dt" here

…//twitter.com/victorianwinter" style="text-decoration: none" ><dt/> Twitter</a>

✉

The element named above was found in a context where it is not allowed. This could mean that you have incorrectly nested elements -- such as a "style" element in the "body" section instead of inside "head" -- or two elements that overlap (which is not allowed).

One common cause for this error is the use of XHTML syntax in HTML documents. Due to HTML's rules of implicitly closed elements, this error can create cascading effects. For instance, using XHTML's "self-closing" tags for "meta" and "link" in the "head" section of a HTML document may cause the parser to infer the end of the "head" section and the beginning of the "body" section (where "link" and "meta" are not allowed; hence the reported error).
Error Line 165, Column 5: end tag for "dl" which is not finished

</dl>   </div>

✉

Most likely, you nested tags and closed them in the wrong order. For example <p><em>...</p> is not acceptable, as <em> must be closed before <p>. Acceptable nesting is: <p><em>...</em></p>

Another possibility is that you used an element which requires a child element that you did not include. Hence the parent element is "not finished", not complete. For instance, in HTML the <head> element must contain a <title> child element, lists require appropriate list items (<ul> and <ol> require <li>; <dl> requires <dt> and <dd>), and so on.
Error Line 464, Column 10: end tag for "div" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified

    </table ></p>

✉

You may have neglected to close an element, or perhaps you meant to "self-close" an element, that is, ending it with "/>" instead of ">".
Info Line 221, Column 11: start tag was here

                <div>

Error Line 464, Column 10: end tag for "td" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified

    </table ></p>

✉

You may have neglected to close an element, or perhaps you meant to "self-close" an element, that is, ending it with "/>" instead of ">".
Info Line 211, Column 18: start tag was here

            </td><td valign="top" bgcolor="#FAFFFC" ><table class="header" widt…

Error Line 464, Column 10: end tag for "tr" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified

    </table ></p>

✉

You may have neglected to close an element, or perhaps you meant to "self-close" an element, that is, ending it with "/>" instead of ">".
Info Line 201, Column 1: start tag was here

<tr><td style="padding-right: 10px;" align="center" valign="top">

Error Line 464, Column 14: end tag for element "p" which is not open

    </table ></p>

✉

The Validator found an end tag for the above element, but that element is not currently open. This is often caused by a leftover end tag from an element that was removed during editing, or by an implicitly closed element (if you have an error related to an element being used where it is not allowed, this is almost certainly the case). In the latter case this error will disappear as soon as you fix the original problem.

If this error occurred in a script section of your document, you should probably read this FAQ entry.
Error Line 471, Column 7: end tag for "hr" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified

        <hr>

✉

You may have neglected to close an element, or perhaps you meant to "self-close" an element, that is, ending it with "/>" instead of ">".
Info Line 471, Column 3: start tag was here

        <hr>

Error Line 483, Column 18: end tag for "form" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified

</div></div></div></div>

✉

You may have neglected to close an element, or perhaps you meant to "self-close" an element, that is, ending it with "/>" instead of ">".
Info Line 186, Column 2: start tag was here

    <form id="add_to_cart_form_0b23bc01371cc135196b730ed939fc86" accept-charset="u…

Error Line 505, Column 29: document type does not allow element "div" here; missing one of "object", "applet", "map", "iframe", "button", "ins", "del" start-tag

    <div class="linksbottom"><a href="/pages/about-us" >About Us</a> |

✉

The mentioned element is not allowed to appear in the context in which you've placed it; the other mentioned elements are the only ones that are both allowed there and can contain the element mentioned. This might mean that you need a containing element, or possibly that you've forgotten to close a previous element.

One possible cause for this message is that you have attempted to put a block-level element (such as "<p>" or "<table>") inside an inline element (such as "<a>", "<span>", or "<font>").
Error Line 523, Column 111: required attribute "alt" not specified

…t"> <img src="http://www.victorianwinter.com/sc_images/icons/creditcards.gif"/>

✉

The attribute given above is required for an element that you've used, but you have omitted it. For instance, in most HTML and XHTML document types the "type" attribute is required on the "script" element and the "alt" attribute is required for the "img" element.

Typical values for type are type="text/css" for <style> and type="text/javascript" for <script>.
Error Line 528, Column 7: end tag for "div" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified

</body>

✉

You may have neglected to close an element, or perhaps you meant to "self-close" an element, that is, ending it with "/>" instead of ">".
Info Line 35, Column 1: start tag was here

<div id="sc" class="cols2">

Answer 1

Lines 161-164: The structure of definition list <DL> is supposed to be:

<dl><dt>term1</dt><dd>definition1</dd>
    <dt>term2</dt><dd>definition2</dd>
    ...
</dl>

Your list looks like this:

<dl><a ...><dt/>Text</a>
    <a ...><dt/>Text</a>
    ...
</dl>

which is not even close to the same thing. I'm not sure why you're using <dl> in the first place, it looks like you want <ul>, so it should be:

<ul><li><a ...>Blog</a></li>
    <li><a ...>Flickr</a></li>
    ...
</ul>

Next, your page has 3 <form> tags that start forms, but there's only 1 </form> to end them. There are probably other mismatched tags, and this is messing up the nesting of elements, which is probably what's causing most of the other errors (it's hard to tell precisely -- once things get out of sync all hell breaks loose).