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Website Standardization

Anyone who slaps a »this page is best viewed with Browser X« label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network.

    — Tim Berners-Lee

Website standardization of existing or new homepages/websites can be performed according to all major recommendations and standards by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), The Web Standards Project, ERCIM, Web Standards Group, and The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The scope of development includes character encoding (e.g., UTF-8), markup language (HTML/XHTML), style sheet (CSS), scripts (e.g., JavaScript), objects (e.g., Flash), metadata (DC, RDF, etc.), and news feeds (Atom or RSS). Resolution and browser independence are also included with interoperability, eliminated version targeting, backward/forward compatibility, and functionality considerations. WCAG/Sec 508 accessibility is provided upon request.

High Quality, Valid Content

  • Considering all major recommendations, standards and de facto standards by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
  • Considering less known standards by The Web Standards Project, ERCIM, Web Standards Group, and The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
  • Valid UTF-8 character encoding
  • Valid HTML/XHTML markup (any versions, XHTML+RDFa or XHTML5 by default)
  • Valid CSS style sheets
  • Valid RSS news feeds
  • Valid RDF metadata
  • Valid metadata
  • Valid FOAF metadata
  • Valid DOAC metadata
  • Valid object embedding (Flash/GoogleMaps/YouTube/aStore…)
  • Valid script embedding (JavaScript/PHP…)
  • Resolution independence
  • Browser independence
  • Interoperability
  • Version targeting eliminated
  • Backward compatibility
  • Forward compatibility
  • Robust functionality
  • WCAG/Sec508 accessibility (upon request)

Benefits of Standard-Compliant Markup

Valid, standard-compliant markup has several advantages. Here are the most important ones:

  • Search engine crawlers can index documents more adequately, and the content is basically search engine optimized.
  • Compared to those websites that violate standards, standard-compliant websites can be downloaded faster.
  • Well-structured markup provides faster rendering.
  • Web documents that apply standards properly are rendered accurately.
  • More users are accommodated, and they probably stay longer because of correct appearance and layout (thanks to correct rendering rather than design).
  • Lower development costs (only in case of well-qualified developers and carefully selected software tools).
  • Standard-compliant markup serves as the basis for website accessibility.
  • Backward compatibility is ensured as browsers evolve.
  • Optimal content lengths and file size (no unnecessary characters are listed in the source code), as well as cost-optimal storage (potential for cheaper hosting). Standard-compliant markup is easier to maintain and update than the markup that violates standards.
  • Standard-compliant source codes become obsolete later, and upgrading is much easier when new standards are introduced.
  • Compatibility with current and future browsers is guaranteed (at least from a developer’s point of view).
  • Inspire implementation and force web browsers to support standards.

As you can see, the standard-compliant, clean code has many advantages over nonstandard source code. Consequently, standards compliance should be a fundamental part of every website project.

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