If you plan to build your own website, then you’ve probably already heard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), but if not, it is an international organization that sets standards for XML and other web-based codes. For website developers, deciding whether or not to adhere to those standards is a big choice to make, especially given that the standards are set rather high: so high, in fact, that the majority of websites on the Internet do not meet them. Here are some questions designed to help you decide whether to join the majority of non-W3C compliant websites, or the small (but virtuous) minority.

1. Who is your client base? If your website is targeted at computer programmers, web developers or other visitors who are likely to be familiar with W3C standards, then you’d better believe that they’ll look for compliance. Not only are W3C compliant websites more structurally sound, they also have fewer glitches, regardless of the browser the visitor is using, making them appealing to visitors who are aware of the World Wide Web Consortium. In general, business websites targeted at white collar professionals of any industry would be well-served by adhering to W3C standards.

2. How important is search engine optimization (SEO) to you? While Google currently does not validate websites according to W3C before displaying them in their search results, its crawlers-which scour the Internet to compile Google’s index of web pages-will have a much easier time categorizing your website if it adheres to W3C code. That translates into a broader array of search terms linked to your website, and potentially higher rankings. If you fail to do so, it may result in sections of your website becoming “invisible” to Google and to other search engines if a section of faulty code causes the crawlers to abort indexing your website. If instead of deciding to build your own website for free, you decide to hire a designer to create an optimized website, make sure you stipulate in your contract that the website be W3C verified.

3. How much do you want to know about website development? If the answer is, not much, then you might be better off not worrying about W3C. However, if you are curious to keep learning or believe that it will improve your marketability, deciding to make your website W3C compliant will certainly help. Running web pages through W3C’s validation process will tell you an awful lot about errors in code that your site has, and will both make it easier for you to find solutions to your problems, and also how to avoid them going forward. In short, it can be quite an educational process trying to build a free website online that is also W3C compliant.

4. Are you willing to perform maintenance on your website? Websites that aren’t W3C certified will run into more problems than those that are. Visitors using browsers aside from Internet Explorer and Firefox will likely have more problems, and sections of your website may crash unexpectedly, requiring rapid response from you or your web developer. On the other hand, those that are certified will require little to no maintenance-aside from any changes to content. In fact, browsers that haven’t been invented yet should be able to display your webpage with few if any problems two or three years from now: it’s the whole point of a deciding to build a free website that is W3C compliant.

5. How much time do you plan to devote to your free website? If you’re simply starting a personal website for your own purposes and plan to update it only once or twice a day, and never market it beyond your circle of friends, then making it W3C certified might be a waste of time. However, if you have any plans to build your own website into an ecommerce website or portfolio website-or any other type of professional website-then using W3C standards might be in your best interests.

Author Bio: Maria Wixman can teach you How To Create a Free Music Website with WIX.com I have been in the online marketing industry for over two years and love all things related to e-marketing, writing for the web, SEO and SEM. I\’ve been working for a large company that specializes in web design, and love how dynamic this field is.

Category: Internet
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