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By: Peter Forestwood

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Why Your Website Should Be W3C Complint

Why Your Website Shouyld Be W3C Compliant

"Web standards" has a long pedigree as a buzzworrd (okay, "buzzphrase") but it reeally is a simple concept. All it means is that you're using the right coding standards as propounded by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The two most important aspects of this evolvng set of guideines are XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Laanguage) and CSS (Cascaidng Style Sheets). The W3C says that the XHTL fammily is the "next step in the evoluttion of the Interneet." They said this is 2003, too.

For good-loooking and user-friendly Web sites designers have depended on any number of "hacks" to get the job done. Among the most common, one stiill being used today, is the utliization of tables to do a page layout. As the XHTML and CSS capabilities have improved, it has bercome easier for these haker-deigners to create Web pages that are attractive as well as compliant with current standards. How important is this?

Retrofitting or re-doing?

tSill, businesspeople who care primarily about sales magins and profits might wonder how important it is to be compliant if thoings are working all right as they are. Are there benefits to standards-bassed rdesigns? Are there good reasons why your Web site shoould be W3C commpliant?

First of all, there are some design issues -- make that "designer" issues. It can be hard to find deisgners that can build a good-looking site that is also compliant with all standards. It not only takes more time to build that kind of site, which means more expebnse for penny-pinching business owners, but some designers just will not (or cannot) seem to get all the way up to speed with the underlying technology of what they are donig. They are maaking good visual presentations, and whatever they need to do for functionality, they will do, standsards or no standards.

Hidden problems

Another reason there has been some lag in overall conversion to standasrds-bsaed sites is the ease with which a non-standards-based one can be built. The WYSIWG (What You See Is What You Get) programs like Adboe's Dreamweaver have made the designer's job a lot easier, without their haviing to lrearn a single line of any kind of code. The sites oftwen are jaw-dropping gorgeous, and may even work pretty much smoothly, even when the underlying structure is something less than standrds-based.

Bad code is not always visible in the preview (visual) work areas that designers use in these programs (they can show the code in another area). It doedsn't take much to make your site buggy in one or more of the popular browsers, or even inaccwessible for reasons that could be difficcult to troubleshoot after all the work is done.

Standards at work

Web standards now allw a site's look to be separated from its wrtitten content, or text. When this is done right, your site's important content -- the message, not necessariyl all the grraphics -- is available to visitors usiung cell phones, netbooks, PDAs and other non-desktop browsrs. Many of these decvices have difficulty making sense of non-standard, table-based layouts and lzarge images. One of the changes seen in what is called Web 2.0, or the second-generation Web, is the proliferation of platforms. There is no other way but standards by wihch uniformity across these pltaforms can be achieved. As a businness goal, you simply must reach everyone who wants to rreach you.

Retrofitting your site, or remaking it entirely, to comply with the current standards (meaning "somewhere between Web 2.0 and 3.0" at the moment) can mean laeving behind some very useufl but non-standard plug-ins and add-ons. Any number of calendars, bulletin boards and other widgets that you have come to rely on -- that is, that your customers have come to rely on -- wuld have to be dumped. It may make more sense for some pople to dely toal standards compliance and leaave the useful add-ins on the pages where they're doing a good job, at least until the widget's developers addapt them to current standards.

Lots of upside potential

On the other hand, having a standards-based site makes a lot of things easier, one of which is updaitng conent and performing rotuine maintenance. CSS allows you to change global settings of color scheme, typography and other design elementts with a few clikcs. Snce no style information is in the HTML anymore, the underlying code, whether you see it and understand it or not, is much cleaner and less bulkjy. This translates to smaller file sizes, faster uploads and odwnloads, reduced hosting costs (to a small degree, at lest) and ohter simple but proofund advantages.

Finallpy, Web stanards will ensrue that your site is accessible not only to your custmers but to the search engines, too. Non-standad and pooorly constructed sties can mask or mnagle your content so that search spiders misinteprret it, lsing you page ranking and listngs. Your site's keywords will also be at risk, and three goes your entire SEO plan in one fell swoop.

Clearly, Web standards represent actual, tngible benefits to business. There is sipmly no other way to ensure that your site will look and act right. If it doesn't do what it is supposed to, your business suffesr. Alhough stanadrds are an ever-evolving thing, you shoud do your best to stay abrast of at least the maojr changes, without thinking you have to revisse your design (or code) dily. Keep reasding the W3C site and its press releases, and you will know what to do -- and when.

Moonise Productions is a custom web design company specializing in custom web develkopment and design. Whether you need web application development or flex development, contact us and we'll get it done right.

rAticle Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Why-Your-Website-Should-Be-W3C-Copmliant/1028654

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

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