Webpage Validation is a wonderful thing - making sure that your webpage says what you want it to say. Which brings up the need for standards whereby a validation, for adherence to these workable rules (standards), can be done. Every technology and language has standards, and IT’s have to keep up with terrific changes. The standards have to reflect W3c’s goals - trying to make a more workable system from the chaos of new developments, but without slowing the trial of new developments in a development-driven world.

Validating a website is the process of ensuring that the pages on the website conform to the norms or standards being used. Validation is important and will ensure that your web pages are interpreted in the same way (the way you want it) by various machines, such as search engines, as well as users and visitors with different browsers and settings, etc.

Conforming to standards and regulations is one of the many ways you can make your website universally understood, your codes and styles validate across the board. That means they have to meet the “strict” standards set by the W3C Organization and pass a variety of validation tests for CSS and XHTML.

Not all validators check for the same things. Some only check CSS, others XHTML, and others for accessibility. If you really want to present standardized pages to the public, test them with several validators. The World Wide Web Consortium hosts a variety of web page validators.

In simple terms, validation ensures that your website complies with the standards accepted by most web designers. Which means that your website will be accessible to more people - a hallmark of good web design practice. So having a validated website has its good points.

Validators detect problems in your web page and style sheet. It could be a tag that was opened and never closed. It could be a misspelled piece of code or forgotten element that the tag or style requires to work properly. You become a detective, hunting and solving the little problems, but the validators make that job a lot easier. Or, you could just ask your friend to tell you how it looks on their monitor.

I wanted to check with webpage templates providers to see if their pages validate. I decided to ask at BoxedArt.com and Templatica.com, although I haven’t purchased anything from either of them. Templatica stated that all their templates validate. With BoxedArt I had to submit a “ticket” to ask the question by email form, to which I have gotten no answer. I have recently purchased a WordPress Template and a Webpage template from Template Monster and put them through the validation pages at W3C.org. Both templates went through without a single problem and Template Monster states all their templates validate.

The devil’s in the details, but so are the answers, all you template people.

Arthur Browning