Legal Marketing & PR

Everyone needs Standards ? Why you Should Care.

By alex

Everyone needs to learn. Everyone has to evolve with the times. As a client and user of the internet you are definitely familiar with sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and blogging.  But why are you not familiar with web standards?  If you are in the market for a new web site or redesign of your site, you should be.

It?s getting a bit silly at this point that people still reference code as being synonymous with tables.  Yes, I am talking about old <TD> <TR> tags for building sites and meta keyword tags for search optimization.  It?s interesting to think that archaic code that once was the norm continually gets brought up by clients.

Yet, new impressive terms such as CSS, XHTML, JQuery and true web standards still don’t compute. When will the new technologies and true web standards become part of the lingo?

Perhaps it?s our fault as web designers for not educating the public.  Clients often look to us for guidance, so we need to break down the language barrier and educate them on web standards; that way we do not keep getting questions such as:

“So, like, what is this thing that you speak of called Web Standards?” “I never knew that web pages weren’t built out in tables anymore…What difference does it make?” “Why would I care?” “Look buddy, I don’t need to know your jargon…” “Page markup? I’ll marker you up!”

Ultimately, there are tons of great articles on these ?intertubes? about web standards.

1.    WC3 Validation
2.    CSS vs. Tables
3.    SEO Standards

Knowing web standards is needed by all clients.  While I admit that I am somewhat evangelical about these points, it is, at the very least, worth it for potential clients to know why they want to know this stuff. So, let me break it down as to why you care.

?    It will save you time and money on selecting the appropriate design team.
?    It will help you build the best web site.
?    Cross Browser Compatibility
?    Mobile Compatibility
?    Availability / functionality to all people, including people with disabilities
?    Improved search engine optimization
?    Decreased bandwidth
?    Decreased server space
?    Faster loading pages
?    Better Maintenance
?    Lower costs for maintenance, future updates, and time spent on upgrades.

In short, embrace it. Learn it. Love it. But most importantly, spread the word and reap the benefits!

Full post as published by PaperStreet Web Design: SpeakOut on March 27, 2009 (boomark / email).