Web standards should be remebered when designing a website when it comes to finding an extra edge to improve business. How does adherence to to web standards help a business website? Let’s review.

What are the Standards? On the Web, the main standards are the languages used when creating websites. The most widespread ones are HTML, XHTML and CSS. HTML or XHTML are used to create the backbone of websites - the structure. The difference between HTML and XHTML is that XHTML was formed from XML and is forward compatible. CSS, in turn, is used to style, format and position the structure and content.

What is Web Standards Compliance? Web standards compliance is using web languages correctly. This involves using HTML tags properly and the way they were and are intended to be used. For instance, one of the most common offenses against the web standards is using table tags for layout, while the correct usage is to use them only for tabular data (information to be put in tables).

Benefits of Standards Compliance? Creating quality, standards compliant code has a number of benefits: 1) website forward compatibility 2) increased site download speed 3) browser compatibility 4) easier site maintenance 5) broader target audience

How Can This Help Business? Any entrepreneur is asking right now, “Where is the money here?” Probably every benefit can either increase revenues or save expenses. We will look at them in detail in Adhering to Web Standards to Improve Business - Part 2, tomorrow.

Who Loves You,
Arthur Browning