Building a web presence using compliant code provides a great advantage to your website. To some web developers, this is not a priority because of the web project budget, deadline or inexperience. While compliant code is only one piece of the many puzzles related to your sites development; it is a very important element that may prevent big issues down the road. Below we list and explain why your website should be as compliant as possible.
Compliancy and W3C
W3C is short for World Wide Web Consortium. They are an organization devoted to developing standards for the World Wide Web (W3). The W3C's main objective is to ensure compatibility and agreement with vendors to avoid incompatibility between web pages. Presently, many of the browsers follow the W3C guidelines, making it easier for webmasters to ensure there work will be consistent across all platforms.
Validating Your Code
Validating your websites code is very easy. Simply visit www.validator.w3.org and enter your web page URL into the address box and press check. The system will crawl your page for errors and display the results.
Keep Your Site Design Looking Good - Forever!
As mentioned above the W3C's guidelines servers as a standard for web page code. When browsers upgrade, they incorporate past compliant standards. So to avoid possible design defects from upgrading browsers, it's wise to stick with compliant code.
Is Not Having A 100% Compliant Website Bad?
Not all web designers build with perfect code, yet develop good coded websites that withstand the test of time regardless. With many companies, it depends on the webmaster, budget, and project needs. Even top web design firms can't always promise all web pages on your site will be W3C compliant after its initial design. As technology changes daily, so does the time involved trying to meet validation guidelines thus causing compliant code maintenance to sometimes be charged at a premium or delay project deadlines. While having your entire website pass validation is ideal it is not always practical; maintaining good markup and fewer coding errors also helps prevent future website problems and increases cross browser compatibility.