Why Use Web Standards?

There are numerous reasons to utilize hand-coded, standards-based HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Better Search Engine Visibility

Search engines have to sort through less code to get to the all-important content of each web page. This helps with keyword relevance when optimzing for search engine placement. This is only one piece of optimizing a site to rank well in search engines such as Google or Yahoo!.

Accessibility

Using web standards helps create a website that is accessible to indivdiduals who may be using alternative browsing methods such as screen readers, braille browsers, or hand-held devices. These users may or may not have a handicap that warrants the use of these alternative browsing technologies.

Bandwidth Savings and Performance

Pages designed with industry standard CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) positioning tend to be "lighter-weight" (in terms of kilobytes of data) than their counterparts that are designed extensively using table-based layouts. Over the course of a year on a moderately trafficked website, this can mean savings in data transfer bandwidth usage as well as a snappier displaying website and happier visitors. Of course website visitors prefer a responsive website with immediate access to data.

More Manageable, Flexible Code

Table-based layouts can easily become bloated and confusing. Using Cascading Style Sheet positioning instead allows for much more manageable code and layouts. Layouts can be skinned, re-skinned, and modified with much more ease. CSS-based layouts are also more flexible and allow for the use of fewer graphics on each page.