About Web Standards

What are they?

Web standards are a series of procedures and protocols developed collectively by expert groups. These standards help provide universal access, improve stability, and they also make web development faster and more cost-effective.

Where do they come from?

Web standards are developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C is an international industry consortium dedicated to "leading the Web to its full potential". It's led by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web. Founded in 1994, the W3C has more than 450 member organizations – including Microsoft, AOL, Apple, Adobe, Sun Microsystems, and a variety of other hardware and software manufacturers, content providers, academic institutions, and telecommunications companies. The Consortium is hosted by three research institutions – MIT in the US, INRIA in Europe, and Keio University in Japan.

Why are they important?

Complying with web standards gives us the following advantages:

  • Greater visibility in web searches. The structural information present in compliant documents makes it easy for search engines to access and evaluate the information in those documents, and they get indexed more accurately.
  • Greater accessibility. Designing to web standards ensures that not only regular screen browsers can correctly display content, but also alternative browsers such as screen readers and Braille browsers. This allows the web to be used by people with disabilities, and anyone else that requires the use of an alternative-output device.
  • Backwards compatibility. Standards are written so that old browsers will still understand the basic structure of your documents. Even if they can't understand the newest and coolest additions to the standards, they'll still be able to display the content of your site.
  • Future-proofing. Even though web standards are constantly evolving, designing to them ensures that new browsers and devices will be able to correctly interpret and display your documents.
  • More efficient development. The old ways involved designing different versions of everything for different browsers - this was difficult and wasteful of time and resources. Designing to a common standard saves time and avoids these frustrations, leading to reduced costs.

Will it cost extra to be standards compliant?

No! We design all our websites to comply with current web standards, whether it's a single page or a bespoke web application.

Examples From Our Portfolio

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