Web Standards: Is It Really That Important?

A webmaster who knows his trade should be well aware of the fact that essential web design must conform to existing web standards as set by the Web Standards Group (WSG) and by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It may sound ironic to some people to think that the Internet, a realm of freedom for most, is actually governed by the so-called W3C standards.

The W3C standards, however, exist for a reason, and that reason is by no means to limit or to restrict the use of the Internet. The web standards should rather be seen as a means by which a webmaster would be able to protect his website, to make it easy to work with, and to give a form of versatility to the website so that others may be able to access it.

The Accessibility of Standard Websites

Accessibility is one of the greatest reasons why following the W3C standards and creating a standard website is important. In this day and age when search engines reign supreme and people can surf the Internet using mobile phones, handheld devices and even gaming consoles, it has become essential in web design that the website one creates must be read correctly by all existing platforms.

If a website is designed and coded properly according to web standards, it does not matter which device or browser a person is using to view the website. The website content will load correctly regardless of gadget, browser or operating system being used.

Also, the viability of the website is protected. If a website was made according to web standards, it will have the backwards compatibility that makes older browsers able to read and load them. On that same note, the website will still be readable to newer browsers regardless of whatever technological advances would occur in the future.

The Profitability of Standard Websites

It should be emphasized that standard websites are also more profitable to make and maintain than those that do not follow the W3C standards. For one, they are easier to maintain. With the right content management software and code validators, maintaining and adding new content to the website will only take less than an hour to accomplish. This immediately saves the webmaster time and money in working on his website.

Search engines are also friendlier towards standard websites. All webmasters know that search engine visibility is the key to profitability on the Internet. Following the W3C standards ensures that the website has the correct coding and information architecture that will make search engine robots able to index the site properly. Properly indexed web pages are more guaranteed to land higher rankings on search engine results pages (SERP). A higher SERP ranking means more traffic, and more traffic usually means better income.

Creating a web design that yields a website that complies with the W3C standards is not limiting or restricting. It is actually far from that. Instead, the web standards are more of a way of unleashing the potential power that a website holds.

Tags: w3c, web design, web standards