Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict from this site
Not all websites are created equal. Visually they may appear to be identical, but under the bonnet the quality of the HTML code can vary considerably. But if they look the same, why does it matter?
Well primarily, badly coded HTML demonstrates an overall lack of quality control on the part of the developers. And websites with badly coded HTML can suffer from significant problems. Amongst others, these can include...
- Slowly loading pages
- Poor search engine performance
- Poor browser compatibility
- Poor accessibility
Slowly loading pages
Pages that are bloated with badly written code can sometimes be as much as ten times bigger than pages created using modern, standards compliant HTML. Slow pages deliver an inferior experience to your visitors, and can cause problems for search engines.
Poor search engine performance
In extreme cases, badly written code may prevent search robots from fully indexing a site, so that pages or even entire sections of a website are invisible to search engines.
Poor browser compatibility
Different browsers deal with badly written code in unpredictable ways. While Browser A might make a good stab at rendering your bad code, browser B might fail spectacularly. Using standards compliant HTML is a great start in your attempts to ensure that everybody who visits your site, gets to see roughly the same thing.
Poor accessibility
Badly written code can cause a myriad of accessibility problems, and sticking closely to the W3C's standards helps us to create accessible webpages. And ultimately, failure to meet accessibility legislation might expose your organisation to legal risk.
But using standards compliant coding techniques isn't just about avoiding problems. There are a number of areas where the overall usability of webpages can be significantly enhanced by using well written HTML.
Semantic markup provides usability and SEO benefits
Semantic mark-up is HTML that describes the content, rather than the manner in which the content is presented. It allows the meaning to be delivered to users regardless of the browser they use, so that content can be provided to the widest possible audience. Search engines are also able to work out what your content is about, which gives SEO.