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What is the W3C and why is it important?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. They are an organization that creates specifications and guidelines that are intended to promote the web's evolution and ensure that web technologies work well together for present and future technologies.

The W3C is widely known as the organization which sets the standards in website creation and other web based applications.

What is the W3C Validator?

The W3C validation test basically runs a test on the pages of your website to check for any errors in the way the page was wrote. For example, an HTML validator checks to make sure the HTML code on your web page complies with the standards set by the W3C. A CSS validator works in exactly same way as the HTML validator does only checking the CSS not the HTML.

When the test has finished the validator will display the results saying if the website page has passed and to what level it has passed. Any errors in the document will be shown here, errors in the code of your website can result in many problems ranging from it badly damaging the SEO of your site to making the website appear inconsistently in different internet browsers.

Want a website that complies with all the W3C tests?

Here at Iconet every website we produce passes the W3C HTML and CSS validation tests to the highest level. As well as this each website we produce is cross-browser in all the major internet browsers to ensure the site performs as intended.

There are many advantages of having a W3C compliant site, they are as follows;

Cross-Browser Compatibility

There are many different internet browers currently available e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and more. Each browser reads the code for your website slightly different, so for example you could view a website in Firefox and the site will look fine, but when you view the exact same website in a different browser the website could glitch and display differently.

Having a website which passes the W3C validation test greatly increases the likeliness that your site will run correctly in all internet browsers.

Search Engine Optimisation

If your web page contains errors, search engines are likely to have difficulty going through the coding of your web page this badly affects the SEO of your website. Similar to internet browsers, it is likely that different search engines view errors in different ways. This may result in certain parts of the web page if not all too basically appear invisible and not get indexed by search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

Having a site that complies with the W3C standards ensures that the whole web page will get indexed by the various search engines and that the website will achieve better results in search engine listings.

Professionalism

Having a website for your company what errors reflects badly on your business and shows a lack of skill in developing the website in question.

My current website doesn’t validate, can you help?

Yes, Iconet will give your website a performance check at no charge. You will then receive a free report on your website detailing how well the optimised the site is search engines and how well it is designed.

The report will point out the good and bad points of your website, and we will further advise on the next best step to take. Depending on the current performance of your site you may just require a simple tune-up session with us to correct any errors, or you may require a more in depth sessions in which we will make your current website as optimised for the search engines as possible.

So if you require a website that performs better with Google and other search engines, or if you already have a site that is not performing as well as you would like, then call Iconet today on 01527 837 873 or email us at info@iconet.co.uk to see how we can help to improve your business through increased website traffic.

Ben Towler, Web Design Assistant, Iconet