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What’s the Big Deal about W3C Compliance?

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March 10, 2011

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Design & Development

Maybe you’ve heard of it. Maybe you haven’t. It’s the law of the Internet world, although not really enforced since the Internet is uncensored (and should remain that way!). So it’s up to developers to make W3C compliant websites – but what does that mean, and why is it so important?

W3C stands for the World Wide Web Consortium, an international community where member organizations and approved contributors work together to develop Web standards. If your website is W3C compliant, that means it upholds the W3C expectations for applications, architecture, semantics, and other criteria. No matter who you hire to design your site, they should be familiar with W3C standards and compliance.

Web designers that follow W3C standards are more likely to develop a website that is well coded, user friendly and structured properly. If you want a mobile website or mobile app developed, there are now W3C standards for those as well.

Some of the main goals of the W3C are:

  • Coding standards and rules that provide proper building techniques for web applications
  • Web Accessibility for people with disabilities
  • Internationalization to make it possible to use web technologies with different languages, scripts, and cultures
  • Social development to bridge the digital divide and provide minimal health education, governance and other services
  • Mobile device compatibility so the web can go anywhere you go
  • Expand data and services by improving available web technologies
  • Build a web of trust, communication, and privacy

So, are W3C standards really “laws?” No. W3C publishes documents written by its members; these documents define Web technologies. They must follow a process designed to promote consensus, fairness, public accountability and quality. At the end of this process, W3C turns those documents into Recommendations – and those are considered Web standards.

Those standards may not be mandatory, but they certainly are important if you want your website to be effective. JT Website Design is a W3C compliant web design service (of course!), and we only recommend you work with web designers who uphold those same standards.

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