What are Web Standards?
What are web standards and why do I need to know?
Web standards are recommendations by the W3C - the creators of the web - as to how web sites should be constructed.
Why should my site be built to meet them?
Web standards are both open to future improvement and mindful of past technology. By incorporating these standards you are making your website more accessible for everyone, regardless of ability, mobility, operating system / device or browser.
What are the benefits for my business?
- Lower development costs
- Easily portable to other devices (Mobile phones / PDAs)
- Pages easier to manage / maintain.
- Smaller pages mean lower bandwidth / hosting costs.
- Reach more of your target market
- Search engine friendly code - search engines can access and evaluate the information far more easily, in turn pages are indexed more accurately.
- Accessible for people with disabilities
- Accessible on alternative browsers/devices
- Increased site performance
- Smaller file sizes mean faster download speeds.
- Forwards compatibility
- Sites will degrade gracefully. They will remain readable and accessible as browsers and web standards change.
- Increased compatibility across different browsers, platforms and devices.
What is meant by alternative browsers/devices?
- Voice browsers that read web pages aloud to people with sight impairments.
- Braille browsers that translate text into Braille.
- Text-only browsers.
- Hand-held browsers with very little monitor space (Mobile phones/PDAs)
- Teletext displays
- Other unusual output devices.