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What’s Under the Hood of Your Website?

Thursday, February 28th, 2008, by Daniel V.

When engaging a developer to create your new site, you will be asking questions such as “How long will it take?” and “How much will it cost?” Well, I want to make sure you ask one other very crucial question, and when it comes to buying your new site, it’s the most important question. Ever.“Will the HTML and CSS that you deliver for my website be W3C standards compliant?”

In response to that question, if you get anything other than a quick and clear “yes,” then consider running away as though a stranger was chasing you with a gasoline can and a Zippo lighter.

Standards Schmandards!

You see, quite a few years back, web development went through a profound transition. Web developers crawled out of the primordial ooze that was the dawn of the web. A handful of them stopped hacking sites together using makeshift techniques and instead decided to adhere to a set of rules called Web Standards. Other web developers then caught onto this new, better way of doing things, and the rest is history.

As a buyer of website design and development services, it’s not important that you understand the ins and outs of web standards, but it is important to know whether your developer adheres to them or not.

Selecting Web Developers The Easy Way

Nowadays, all web developers fall into two very distinct camps:

Camp One: Those who create websites using modern web standards
Camp Two: Those who don’t

Now that you know this, it will actually make selecting a web developer that much easier. (Can I get a Halleluiah?) So now, when you are selecting potential web developers, you can feel safe in short listing those who fall into Camp One, and avoid anyone who falls into Camp Two.

Why is it important to know which camp your developer falls in? Read on.

Danger: What’s Under the Hood of Your Site?

The danger is you might very well purchase a brand new site … built on ten year old HTML.

To use a real world example, this would be like someone selling you a 2008 model car with a 1998 engine in it. Because you know better, you’d laugh and walk away— er.. that is.. you should laugh and walk away.

Yet, how would you like to drop good money on a new site to then find out there’s ten-year-old code under the hood? That would be utterly awful, yet it’s one of the most common upsets in our industry perpetrated on buyers who simply don’t know any better.

On the plus side, getting into a website that uses modern (standards compliant) HTML means you’re building a website that uses the best techniques available and saves you money during development. This also means you are future proofing your website as much as humanly possible.

Conclusion: Make Sure You Get Modern Code

Make sure the web developer you select for your project uses W3C standards compliant HTML (or XHTML) when you have your site built. And if you aren’t sure, ask someone who is sure and can advise you accordingly.

Relevant links:

Unleash your inner geek and learn more about the all-round goodness of web standards at:

• www.webstandards.org
• www.w3.org