Standards

This site has been carefully validated so that it complies with XHTML 1.0 Strict and Cascading Style Sheets, Level 2 standards.

Most Web sites today, even those designed by professional firms, do not comply with Web standards -- and often don't even validate! Here are some reasons I believe Web standards compliance is important.

1. Code that validates has a better chance of being displayed properly. If your code does not validate, you are relying on the browser to interpret your ambiguities and fix your mistakes. Browsers change frequently, and there is no guarantee that new versions of browsers will "fix" errors in the same way.

2. Standards-compliant code preserves more semantic information. Standards such as XHTML and CSS encourage Web authors to write code that separates semantics (meaning) from presentation (display). This means pages that are easier to maintain, with flexible designs and well-structured content. It also means that computers can extract information from your page more easily (the W3C's Semantic Web initiative talks about that more). And that means that search engine spiders and other programs will get a better idea of what your page is truly about.

3. Standards-compliant code works in more user agents. Right now, most people view your Web pages on Windows with Internet Explorer. But pages should be accessible in other forms too -- do they still make sense if viewed on a Palm Pilot? or read by a text-to-speech browser operated by a visually impaired person? As the Web becomes more ubiquitous, the number of "safe" assumptions about how people are accessing the content on your page will continue to dwindle. If you adhere to standards, you're making your site more accessible for everyone, not just people on the same platform you are.

4. Standards-compliant code is good for the Web community. By providing a common "language," standards allow information to flow more freely between entities on the Internet. Not using standards -- or using them poorly -- is the Web equivalent of writing with bad grammar; your ideas will not be given as much weight (since fewer will be able to access them) and you are more likely to be misinterpreted. Another community benefit: the more people adhere to standards, the less time browser developers will have to spend writing routines to parse bad markup, and the more time they can spend developing solid, usable browsers.

In short, Web standards' benefits are many, and (in general) worth the time it takes to implement them.

If you are interested in Web standards compliance, I heartily recommend a visit to the Web Standards Project, which is full of helpful information on Web standards advocacy.