Why Web Standards & Accessibility?

Web Standards are a set of industry standards that define how HTML and CSS should be written and in general how websites should be built.

Accessibility refers to the ability for anyone to be able to use a website, reguardless of any disabilities or other special situations such as slow internet connections. Many state and national governments actually have laws that govern the accesibility of websites.

There are many benefits that come with adhering to web standards & accessibility guidelines…

  1. Your Business Looks More Professional

    Having a website that is built with web standards and accessibility in mind will show that you care about everyone being able to access to your products or services. You don't want anyone to be excluded because of a disability or a technical barrier.

  2. Allows Your Website to Reach The Maximum Audience

    Unless your site will be used in a very controlled environment where you can gaurantee that a certain browser on a certain operating system will be used, you'll never know exactly how any given person will be viewing your site.

    A web site built on web standards not only looks great using the newest technology, but it also adapts well to display nicely on older browsers and for devices that assist th disabled.

    By choosing a web standards compliant site, you can be sure that your site will work with the largest possible number of browsing devices.

  3. Makes Your Site Load Faster and Reduces Your Bandwidth Usage

    Standards compliant pages that are well-built are generally much smaller than non-standards compliant pages. Smaller documents mean that your visitors will be able to download each page faster, and as a result find the information they're looking for quicker.

  4. Increases Your Chance for Higher Search Engine Rankings

    Standards compliant pages with well-written content make search engines very happy and will help your rankings. Search engine spiders have a much easier time reading through and finding the important keywords in a well-structured website.

    Higher search engine rankings means higher visibility in the search engines, which generally translates into increased traffic and potential clients for you!

  5. Your Site Will Be Easier to Maintain

    Non-standards compliant sites can become very confusing very quickly, especially when a web designer comes back months or even years later to make changes. And it's even more difficult when a different designer tries to modify a site that was written by someone else.

    A well-structured site makes the updating process much easier and quicker.

  6. Increase The Effective Life of Your Site

    Noone can guarantee for sure that a site created today will be readable a few decades from now. However, if your site is built with well-structured, standards compliant code, then it stands the best chance of being readable in future web browsers.

  7. It's Just Good For Business

    • More visitors
    • A faster site
    • Improved search engine rankings
    • Potential good publicity

    Why wouldn't you use web standards?