The World Wide Web Consortium developed a list of standards for designers and web site developers to follow. This list of standards was created to ensure interoperability and cross browser consistency for web as well as all other web platforms. Designing web sites with “Web Standards” in mind means, among other things, creating sites that are viewable in all current browsers and always look the way the designer intended. These properly designed sites also allow for easier search-ablity because of appropriate use of tags, alternate text for photos, textual menus among other criteria.
The basic elements of Web Standards are: properly coded semantic HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) or XHTML, Use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to specify page design, and the use of standard practices for helping handicapped visitors read and utilize the web site.
The benefits of Web Standards include faster loading pages, maximizing the benefits of new browser features, and easier updates.
Here is a list of practices that a web site designed properly, with Search-ability in mind, should include:
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- Correctly selected DocType at top of HTML Page
- Proper XHTML for search-ability
- ALT tags placed on every photo
- Every page has a Title to suite the content (this is important for book-marking pages also)
- Pertinent Meta Tags added (This is debatable, but some browsers still use them, so it can’t hurt.)
- H1, H2, and P tags properly used for search engine read-ability
- Sub-navigation created using CSS for search engine read-ability
- Keywords used and repeated throughout site for search engine recognition
- Clean HTML code
- Use of <b> (bold) tags around keywords
- Cross links to and from other pertinent websites
- Site map connected to every page on footer navigation
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a document or set of documents, called style sheets, that separate the design “instructions” from the HTML document web page. This means that all elements of the web pages’ design are held in a separate location which allows for “global” changes to be made in seconds instead of the time consuming techniques of the past. It removes redundant and unneccesary code from the HTML with creates faster loading pages and clean web sites. To properly utilize CSS, the HTML web pages must be coded properly and semantic. This means that paragraphs, lists, headers, etc. are properly marked and styled appropriately in the CSS. A properly coded website using CSS saves time and money in the long run because style changes can be made quickly and efficiently.