Sunday, September 5, 2010

Clean HTML Code

First of all what is WC3 and why is it important to your website? Simply put, it is an HTML code validator. The HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the code with which websites are put together and styled. It is essentially the innards of your website, invisible to visitors but essential in the appearance and design of your website . It is like what is under the hood of your car, it is not visible to others when your car is driving down the street but so important that your car will not run properly if the innards are not working correctly

Search engine spiders index websites by reading the HTML. For example, at the very top of the document there must be as statement such as this:

!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"


What this does is let the spiders know what type of document it is and how it should be spidered and displayed. The spiders will follow the rest of the code in order to index the website properly. But if the website is not coded properly, it can cause major problems. Especially if you have a business website, because all visitors are prospective customers and you do not want them to have problems accessing and viewing your store regardless of what browser and operating system that they are using. Improperly coded websites will not be properly displayed because different browsers will not know how to handle and display the errors. It will also not display correctly and consistenly among different platforms. Your website may look fine to you on your screen size and resolution, with your browser and your platform but it does not mean that it looks that way to your visitors with different platorms, browsers, and screens. The only way to make sure that it works correctly is to make sure that your HTML is coded in accordance with web standards. Having a clean code also shows that you and your business are professional. That is why it is essential to check your code with an HTML validator tool such as WC3: http://validator.w3.org

This is problematic with using templates and DIY website builders because the very thing that makes them easy to use is what adds additional code that causes HTML code errors and interferes with website page display. In order for the HTML to be coded cleanly it is recommended that it is done by hand by a person, that is why custom web design is more feasible than a ready-to-go DIY template.

When your HTML code checks clean with the validator, you can display the WC3 seal to show your visitors and customers that you have a clean and professionally constructed website.


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