10 reasons to use web standards on your website
Web standards are a huge advantage yet very few business owners use them on their websites. In this article, Curtis discusses 10 reasons why you should consider them for your site and what you'll be missing out on if you don't.
So you've finally decided to take the plunge and develop a brand new professional web site for your business. Hold it right there. Is your developer prepared and qualified to create your site adhering to the latest web standards, or are they simply going to throw something together in an HTML editor like it's 1996? The fact is, most web companies and designers slop web sites together with outdated and messy code as quickly as possible with no regard to doing things properly. On the outside, the site may look nice, but underneath it may suffer from a common problem afflicting most web sites – it doesn't adhere to web standards.
What the heck are Web Standards?
When a building is designed and constructed, the engineers and contractors must adhere to established building codes. These codes are developed to ensure the building is safe, accessible, and meets the latest fire and structural requirements. By adhering to the latest codes, a builder will meet all requirements in the industry at that time. Web sites have similar rules, called web standards.
Standards are not specific to a certain browser or platform, but rather guidelines that allow each to display the content in a way appropriate for them. For example, the <strong> tag in HTML tells the browser to give strong emphasis to the text. Mozilla Firefox might bold this text whereas a voice reader might say the word slower and louder.
Unfortunately there is one big difference between most codes and standards and web standards – the latter can be completely ignored without repercussion. That's right, no W3C inspector will come along after your site is built and give it a failing grade. A building that fails building codes will be shut down and fixed yet your new site that you had professionally developed will go up on the Internet without even a peep from anyone.
At this point you may still be questioning why web standards would benefit your site and not just make it more difficult to find a qualified developer! I mean, it works, right? It looks pretty. What you may not be aware of is that without web standards your site doesn't work as well as it could. Why pay good marketing money on a new site if it doesn't live up to its potential? Let's go through some of the big advantages of enforcing standards adherence for your web site.
