Validation Error: End tag aside seen, but there were open elements

Question

I receive this error when using the W3C Validator. I also noticed that my footer content disappears in IE8 and I'm wondering if this will fix it.

<aside class="footer-sidebar-widget four columns">
<h4>Call Us Today</h4>          
<div class="textwidget">
        <h4 style="color:#fff;">773-376-ROLL (7655)</h4>
            </div>
</aside>


            <aside class="footer-sidebar-widget four columns">  
            <div class="textwidget">
                <div id="right-footer-wrap">
                    <div id="right-footer-content">
                        <div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness">

                    <span itemprop="name"><strong>Rolling Reefers</strong></span>
                    <br />
                    <div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress">
                     <span itemprop="streetAddress">3535 S Kostner Ave., Suite 101</span>
                    <br />
                    <span itemprop="addressLocality">Chicago</span>, <span itemprop="addressRegion">IL</span> <span itemprop="postalCode">60632</span>
                    <br />
                    <span itemprop="telephone">[phone]</span>

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

Website: Rolling Reefers

Trull

Answer 1

You have an open <div> in the second aside. Adding another </div> before the last </aside> should fix it.

Aegaeon

Yep, you caught it. It was the <div itemprop="address" that I neglected to close. Thanks! It fixed my footer in IE8 as well :) – Trull

Answer 2

To avoid issues like this, it helps to use an editor that will automatically close the HTML tags for you, like Dreamweaver. Or, at least, properly indent your code so you could see when the lines don't match up exactly, and that's where you know you're either missing something or have an extra element.

<aside class="footer-sidebar-widget four columns">  
  <div class="textwidget">
    <div id="right-footer-wrap">
      <div id="right-footer-content">
        <div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness">
          <span itemprop="name"><strong>Rolling Reefers</strong></span>
          <br />
          <div itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress">
            <span itemprop="streetAddress">3535 S Kostner Ave., Suite 101</span>
            <br />
            <span itemprop="addressLocality">Chicago</span>, <span itemprop="addressRegion">IL</span> <span itemprop="postalCode">60632</span>
            <br />
            <span itemprop="telephone">[phone]</span>
          **<!-- YOU'RE MISSING A CLOSING /div RIGHT HERE -->**
        </div><!-- end itemscope wrapper -->
      </div><!-- end .right-footer-content -->
    </div><!-- end .right-footer-wrap -->
  </div><!-- end .textwidget -->
</aside>

Inflexion