7 Benefits of HTML ValidationWritten by Herman Drost
You may not bother with html validation or writing simple and clean code when designing your web site. Later you may find your site is slow loading, appears incorrectly in main browsers and does not rank well for major search engines.Now there are sites that still do rank well even though html code has many errors. This is because most of current major browsers are still very forgiving of html mistakes, however future browsers will become more html compliant as Internet advances. Sites that have not bothered with html code validation will then fall by wayside or take time and money to be corrected. That's why you should take necessary steps NOW to make sure that code on your web site is validated. What is HTML validation? This is process that analyzes an HTML document in comparison to standard HTML rules, identifying errors and non-standard codes. Web pages are rendered using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). As with any language there are rules and standards that should be followed. For example HTML 4.01 Specification (rules and standards) are available at http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/. You can check html validation of your web page by entering your url at: http://validator.w3.org/ 7 Benefits of HTML validation 1. Web Site Accessibility - validating your html code helps to pinpoint areas of potential blockage that could prevent search engine spiders or visitors from accessing your website. When you run your site through a code validator it may produce many errors that need to be corrected so your pages will render well. ie include text with your "alt" tags for every < img > tag. Why should you do this? -Allows your site to be accessible to a larger audience (vision impaired, motor skill impaired, cognitive impaired) -Allows your site to be accessed by wider range of devices (hand helds, screen readers, text browsers, search engines) -Is a requirement for Federal and State Government sites 2. Search engine friendly pages - clean and simple code enables search engines to spider your pages more quickly and completely. Here's an example:
| | Converting Print Advertising For Use On The Web - A How-ToWritten by J Hancock
Contrary to beliefs of some, advertising for web and print are very different. Converting print ads for use on web is very tricky. What has been very successful on paper may have no impact at all on screen. When I am asked “How do I convert my print ads to web?” my answer is simple: don’t! Web and print are so vastly different that I believe you should never build your web pages based on a print ad.There are certain rules that web design must follow that simply don’t apply to print. One of my colleagues, Tim Pattison, broke these rules down very concisely recently: - Usability
- Browser compatibility
- Designing within constraints of (X)HTML
- Accessibility
These are four rules that web design must follow. I will explain these rules in detail later. For now though we need to talk about copywriting. As I said in my last newsletter Web Site Templates and Their Benefits, most important part of your website is content. Search engines and disabled users don’t care how your site looks. They only care about information your site presents. The reason I’m coming back to this is to explain that writing web copy is an entirely different ball game from writing print copy. Quite possibly best resource for writing web copy is book “Web Copy That Sells” by Maria Veloso. It outlines differences between two and gives great techniques to writing for web. I will be revisiting this topic in my newsletters to come, so make sure you visit often.The four rules exclusive to web design: usability, browser compatibility, design within constraints of (x)html, and accessibility, are four horsemen of doom for uneducated, inexperienced designer. They are some of most overlooked aspects of web design, and yet some of most important. - Usability: Unlike print ads, web sites are interactive. Users must be able to easily find their way around, and they need a clear path to information they are trying to find. If you are selling a product, there needs to be a clear, concise, distraction free path from home page all way to check out page.
- Browser compatibility: In a perfect world you could design your web site once and it would look perfect and stay perfect in all browsers. Unfortunately, we live in real world where some browsers support a set of standards and others simply don’t. Actually, most popular browser in world has for years lived by their own rules. While MS Internet Explorer still holds majority of market share, Mozzilla, Netscape, and Opera have acquired a considerable percentage of browser market. In fact, it’s high enough of a percentage to make Microsoft revise their plans to release IE 7.0. While competition is healthy, it makes for headaches for web designers. It is not uncommon to have your site looking perfect in one browser only to find that your entire design explodes when viewed with another.
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