Monkey Business Blog
Valid Markup and the W3C
posted on April 14th, 2008 by A Monkey Typing
I bet you’ve seen them before - those sneaky little lines of text at the bottom of certain
websites. They usually read “Valid HTML” and “Valid CSS”. Some sites even use an image to display this grand declaration:
What does it mean?
Declaring that a website is W3C valid is telling your viewers that you took the time to validate your website against the standards of the W3C, and your website came out victorious! Well actually it means your website passed w3c’s view of what is acceptable use of the code you chose to validate, usually HTML/XHTML and CSS.
Who is the w3c and why should I care what they think?
W3C is an acronym for The World Wide Web Consortium. Among other things, this group attempts to establish standards and guidelines for web technologies. They’ve developed programs to test website code to tell you whether or not it successfully adheres to their standards. What they think matters because they have a full time staff of technical experts and are internationally recognized as the authority on web standards.
Do people really care if sites meet W3C standards?
That’s pretty subjective. Some people care and some people don’t. Personally, if I wanted to buy a used accordian on Ebay, I could care less if their website adheres to web standards or not. If it doesn’t affect me, then why would it matter? But on the other hand, if I was interested in having a website built for me, I would certainly want to hire someone who adheres to standards created by web professionals. Assuming it would cost the same - wouldn’t you want a site built with code approved by people who know a lot more about it than you?
What exactly are these standards?
Some common “problems” the W3C validator sees with websites are very minor. If you use an ampersand (&) instead of the character code for it (&), it will tell you that your website failed validation. On the other hand, the validator also finds important problems, like having certain tags nested in the wrong order, which can affect how your website looks and behaves. Many websites don’t come close to passing w3c validation, such as Myspace, Facebook, Digg, Youtube…and even Google. I bet you never knew (or cared) about that!
Will following them make a difference?
Yes and no. Using the validator to find & fix an issue that would otherwise effect your visitors can make a major positive impact on your website. On the other hand, the validator is a tool to help you program correct code and diagnose problems. It’s not a bible to live your life by nor is it an indicator of a quality & useful website. When too much value is placed upon this tool, people tend to worry more about passing the validator than about what’s best for their viewers.
Like most things in life, the W3C validation service is best used for its intended use - to diagnose coding errors. When you start stressing out because your i’s aren’t dotted and your t’s aren’t crossed, maybe you need to take a break and re-evaluate the main purpose of your web presence.
But you have this “sneaky text” on your website!
Ah you got me. Yeah I paid attention to the validator and made sure it liked the site. Usually I don’t place much emphasis on this or even include validation links, but I like to think that people shopping for a website designer might care that I know how to code valid websites. If you do, great! If not, no harm done I hope.
Posted in Validation, Website Design, Website Development |
No Comments »
No comments yet.
Leave a comment
