Do websites need to be built to standards? Sep 20th '10

This question is often mentioned amongst web designers and web developers. I only heard this debate rear its head the other day and it all comes down to does the website do what it was built to achieve? This article gives both sides of the debate and hopefully sheds some light on it.

What are website standards?

Website standards are guidelines set out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C is a community made up of members from large companies who all have one goal in mind, having one set of rules for all websites built. Standards for websites are outlined in detail ranging from the design of the website to how privacy and accessibility is handled.

In favour of standards

Having one set of rules when building websites has its obvious advantages. Advantages of standards include maintainability of the website and Search Engine Optimisation.

Maintainability

This issue is often overlooked by the current web designer. By using standards compliant code the website becomes easier to maintain, both for the current designer and for any future designers. As the owner of the website this leads to lower costs when changes are needed on the website.

Search Engine Optimisation

This point can be debated by various Internet Marketing people however the fact still remains that when a website is built to standards Search Engines can visit the website quicker and easier. Google have come out and stated that the speed of a website is taken into account when ranking websites. Anything that can be done to a website to improve the search engine ranking is a good thing, right?

Against standards

On the flip side, website standards are seen as a waste of time by many web developers. The reason being that coding a website to standards can take a lot longer. As a client, if you are paying for the amount of time a developer works on a website, this can increase the cost. If a website works and serves its target audience why bother having a website built to the latest standards?

In conclusion

Web Standards aren’t a requirement when building websites. HTML (the code websites are built in) is flexible enough that even if a website isn’t coded correctly, the website can still look OK.

Ultimately though it comes down to the visitors to that website and if they will benefit from website standards Speed, usability and search engine optimisation are all good reasons to use standards as they will all improve the user experience. Given the choice you should always have your website built to standards however only by someone who has always used web standards and can create websites quickly.

Written by Oliver Culverhouse

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