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?

As how much i know about it i think HTML tag HEAD and BODY tags are optional in html.I am not sure about the version in which it is optional ( may be in 4.01).

I can't say I've ever really heard anyone mention "optional" closing tags when it comes to webpages. When pages are authored, I think it's best to err in the direction of "good form." Saving a few bytes here and there doesn't improve your position if a % of browsers can't render the page (such as Opera or Safari).

Typically, the battle to save on page load times is forged by resizing and shrinking images. Reducing the HTML (unless it's by 50-200k or more) would have very minor, if any effects on load times. Most server configurations enable gzip compression of HTML (file is compressed before being sent to browser), so the effect of reducing HTML size is even less important.

I'm not flat out saying it doesn't make a difference, but I am urging you to spend time focusing on growing your marketing knowledge and improving your site conversions in lieu of trimming some characters here and there.

I don't recommend omitting tags closing tags. Proper rendering is far more vital than saving a few bytes.