I’ve seen too many websites with a stunning design and terrible code. So what does it matter if a beautiful new website is standards compliant anyway? The viewer doesn’t see the code directly. Here’s a few things to consider:
- W3C valid XHTML will load faster, because the browser doesn’t have to fix errors (which most don’t do effectively or expediently)
- Standards-compliant XHTML can be parsed faster by search engine spiders, and can help search visibility by decreasing extraneous and duplicate code
- Valid CSS will be much more likely to be compatible across browsers, and can eliminate the need for clumsy workarounds that require more code or browser-specific style sheets and javaScript
- Staying standards-compliant improves the scalability of your site, especially if you use multiple vendors to create content over time
Certainly, there are situations when it’s not possible to stay 100% compliant, and I’m not advocating that every single minute issue needs to be fixed in every circumstance, that could be a big waste of time. I’m just saying that the tools are out there, we might as well start using them:
W3C Markup Validation
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