Montego Musings

I, too, have asked this question in years past, but back then it was HTML 4.01 Transitional and Strict compliance that I was “wrestling” with. Now it is XHTML 1.0 Transitional / Strict (and greater). First off, before I get too far, you will notice that this Blog is NOT XHTML 1.0 Strict even though if you view the source, its DOCTYPE sure seems to say it should be. I agree. Problem is, Google apparently does not, and this is their template. Hopefully some day, I will have the time to change that…

So, what is the big deal anyways? The answer first lies with the question of HTML compliance: web browsers (technically referred to as User Agents within the W3C specs), are supposed to be written to support these standards when it comes to recognizing the various HTML tags and how to render them to specs. (I always say “supposed to” because browser makers do not seem to “get it” when it comes to making their browsers truly standards compliant - yes, even FireFox has some “quirks", but it is better than others which will remain nameless.)

Follow up:

What does this mean exactly and why should you, as a web site designer, care? It all boils down to just how important is it to you that your “consumers” - all users of your site(s) are consumers, or customers - all see your site in the same manner as you intended? For example, if you use some proprietary features of Internet Explorer, such as the marquee tag early on (now supported somewhat by FireFox) to scroll a bunch of text on a part of your site, what happens if someone comes in with a browser that does not support it and they either cannot see all the text, or it throws the whole rest of your site’s formatting out-of-whack?

The second thing to consider is a well-structured and HTML compliant web site will make it much easier for search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and MSN to crawl, and thus, index, your site. For most of us, that is a very good thing! The whole purpose for most of you to be on the web, is to draw eyeballs to your site. This is primarily done through good search results rankings within the search engines. (Many more topics to be written on this in the future.)

So, why XHTML compliance, which is even more strict and picky in its requirements? All of the above still apply, but even better. The more strict adherence to standards you go, you will also benefit from the following:

• Better Accessibility - remember when I mentioned “User Agent” above? With XHTML compliance comes even wider possible support for other user agents, such as screen readers for the blind, mobile access, web site integration and more. Just a note here though: in the true spirit of “accessibility” there are MANY more concepts to take into consideration besides compliance, but those are topics for another day.
• Faster Browser Rendering Speeds - yes, you read that right. I have personally noticed this. Sites that are XHTML compliant, coupled with good use of CSS rather than weighty mark-up (HTML tags such as tables just for layout purposes) are very fast. I’ll illustrate with just ONE small example. Take each image. Each one has a height and width which defines its “box” within the browser rendering space. If you do not supply the height and width attributes within the img tag, the browser has to complete the loading of the image into its cache before it can continue with its rendering OR to re-draw portions of the page to accommodate. Providing these two attributes allow the browser to put in a properly sized placeholder for the image within its “canvas” and it can move on as well as no re-drawing is necessary.
• Diversity of User Agents - I mentioned this a bit under the accessibility topic, but this is also a “plus". So many new gadgets have come to the marketplace and brought us much smaller screen sizes (can you say “internet capable cell phone"?). Having both a compliant and well-structured web site allows these user agents to present your content better to your end-consumers.
• Better SEO - What is SEO? That stands for Search Engine Optimization. A whole big topic in of itself and one that is ever-changing. Same applies as mentioned above under HTML compliance only even better. A well structured web site that is also XHTML compliant (and good use of CSS), will not only make for a much cleaner consumer experience, but also more search engine friendly. Search Engine makers are ever striving to mimic the end-consumer’s experience with the web and reward those sites which provide the best “experience". Keep that principle in mind, and you have won about 50% of the SEO “battle” already (i.e., focus on the human aspects of your site and much of the rest will take care of itself).

There I go, already rambling on without as much of taking a breath. I should address topics in smaller “sound bites” I think. I will wrap up with some of my favorite books on these and other topics for your consideration:

Bullet Proof Web Design - by Dan Cederholm
The Best Practice Guide to XHTML & CSS - by Patrick Griffiths