What's this validation stuff?
Validation is all about the underlying code of your web site. The code is considered valid if it meets certain guidelines set by various standards bodies, such as the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). Valid code is "proper and correct", while invalid code is incorrect. Valid code is often referred to as Standards Compliant code.
Why is validation important? There are three big reasons: First, valid, or Standards Compliant code, is easier for search engines (such as google) to crawl and gather data from your web site. That means better and more accurate representation within the search engine. Second, Standards Compliant code is more accessible by more browsers (new and old) on a greater variety of platforms (Windows versions, Mac, Linux) as well as for screen readers (for the visually impaired). That means more people can access your web site and actually see what you want them to see. Third, Standards Compliant code is FAR less expensive to maintain, and is FAR more "forwards compatible". That means fewer revisions or upgrading of your web site as newer browsers and technology are released.
There are three types of validation; Markup (that's the HTML or XHTML you see when you do a "view source" of a web site), Layout or Style (CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets) and Section 508 (guidelines for people with special needs). Web Site code that validates in all three areas is going to be better indexed by search engines, viewable by the greatest number of people, and less expensive.
When you select a Web Developer, it is vital the developer knows and uses Standards Compliant code. We allow you to automatically check any page on our web site to see that it validates in XHTML and CSS. Section 508 can be tested here for our home page, or, enter any of our URLs here to test individual pages.
We also will ensure that your web site is built with Standards Compliant code. So why do some of our past client sites not validate? Well, some are just plain old, and at the time Standards were not yet available. We also have many clients who like to edit their own code from time to time that may not be Standards Compliant. However, all code generated by 3rd Studio for your web site will be Standards Compliant.
