Could someone explain the advantages of having validated HTML coding?

[christopher]

Could someone explain the advantages of having validated HTML coding?

Thanks a bunch

CPS

[Legacy_Staff]

1) You get a nice green 'approval' page on W3C validation...



(W3C even had to make some "work-arounds" to get their own pages to validate, so I feel much better about mine)

[christopher]

Is that it?

[Legacy_Staff]

Well, checking it's also good for finding faults in your code which might stop bits working as they should.

[bee_bo]

I don't know very much about it, but the top and bottom of it from what i've gathered is accessibility across browsers.

I think i saw someone else mention that more clients are hearing about validated pages and so demanding them, so it'll also keep your client happy.

I'm sure someone else will explain more......

[moojoo]

Valid code is leaner, meaner, increases your search engine rankings, is easier to read/modify and it makes you feel all warm and gooey inside. The point is to make the code as easy for people and computers alike to read and parse. The better your source the better your results. Think of a bloated table layout vs a sexy css/xhtml strict layout. sure you may say a few kilobytes don't mean anything but then add up say 5 kb times 1,000 page loads and you start to see an increase. Not tomention it takes the browser longer to read through and render non valid code than it does valid code.

[mreine]

"cross browser compatibility" is the main reason and even then it can often fail. It can help fix invalid code for the specified doctype. Your doctype is what determines cross browser compatibility more then just validating in general.

The w3c validation doesn't insure accessibility with users. Doesn't protect against bloated code. Really has nothing to do with SEO. And doesn't care if anyone can read the code you just validated. Certaintly doesn't have anything to do with structured markup because it could care less if you ever use headers, paragraphs and lists or if they were used in the correct context.

Validation is basically a backup to catch and correct mistakes that could or could not have ill effects when displayed. It's just a tool like anything else.

I do find it funny when people claim to be validated and accessible yet when you check their CSS code there are hundreds of warnings. The warnings are typically more important toward accessibility then the errors, but people won't spend the extra 10 minutes to correct them.

To summarize....

Validated code should not concern clients because it's meaningless to their agenda. Validation is a designers tool and nothing more. If you see people on here constantly saying "VALIDATE YOUR CODE".. it's just to insure the person has eliminated some of the basic errors that could be causing the problem at hand.

[PixelLuv]

if your page isn't validating you do need to know why and make informed decisions. but the main driver for your site should be the usability and readability. the markup is just that. facilitation of design.


~Pxl

[christopher]

thanks guys

[saltedm8]

Incorrect HTML code can cause display problems that turn away visitors and hurt search engine ranking.
Browser display problems: Even the simplest errors can cause big problems - particularly in browsers like Netscape and Opera. These browsers follow HTML standards very closely. Although Internet Explorer may ignore a problem like a missing closing TABLE tag, Netscape ignores the entire table and all its contents.
Screen readers (a technology used by many people with vision problems) are basically simple text browsers. They often have problems with HTML code errors... particularly missing attributes.
Search engine spiders are also basic text browsers. While an advanced browser like Internet Explorer 6 or Netscape 7 may not care if you forget to close some quotation marks inside a tag, a search engine spider does!
Coding errors may hide large amounts of your page content from search engines... even though human visitors see the content with no problem. That is, if they can find it.

[minute44]

Look here for more info.

[moojoo]

I think my post was misunderstood but that is probably due to my inability to correctly form sentences and master my control of the english language. I never meant to imply Validation was an end all, or a requirement by any means. I apologize for being a picky nose face and I have slapped myself. In my defence I did state that at http://www.webforumz.com/42685-post5.html so

So Hah!