PM Photo -
Website Design & Web Maintenance
FAQs
What is HTML Validation and Why is it Important?
Most people have encountered misbehaving web pages that cause browser errors ranging from badly displayed information to a browser "crash". Usually these "problem" pages contain HTML errors, or the web author made extensive use of non-standard, or browser-specific, code.
Validating HTML pages helps to identify and eliminate the HTML errors that make for a poorly performing Web page.
Too many Web authors say "This page looks just fine on my browser" instead of "This page follows the basic rules of HTML."
Internet Explorer is most commonly used browser, and is the most forgiving when it comes to errors. If the page displays properly without a lot of effort, why worry about validation? 'Because "man" does not browse with IE alone.'
Browser Display Problems: Even the simplest errors can cause big problems. I have a client whose competition is moving to the Reno area. The competition had their web site designed by a large, "professional" company. The site looks great in Internet Explorer, looks okay in Opera, but loses all it's informational content when viewed in the latest version of FireFox. Depending on which statistics you read, FireFox as of January 2007 has captured from 19% to 30% of the browser market. So, that site has lost between 19% to 30% of its potential viewers, which is great for my client, it cuts down on the competition.
Accessibility problems: Screen readers (an assistive technology used by many people with vision problems) are basically simple text browsers. They often have problems with HTML code errors making the page in-accessible for people using screen readers.
Incorrect search engine indexing: Search engine spiders are basic text browsers. While newer browsers may not care if you forget to close some quotation marks inside a tag, a search engine spider does!
PM Photo validates all pages so they are 100% compliant.
