What are the W3C standards?

HTML 4.0 - HyperText Markup Language

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is widely used on the Web for adding structure to text documents. Browsers interpret these documents, representing the structure in media-specific ways to the user. For example, visual browsers typically display the strong element ( - ) as bold text, while text-to-speech readers might emphasize that text when pronouncing it.

With the help of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) the author may define how structural elements are to be represented, overriding the browser defaults.

XML 1.0 - Extensible Markup Language

						
						  Bill Gates
						  bgates@microsoft.com
						
						
						  Marc Andreesen
						  marca@netscape.com
						
						
						  Jon S. von Tetzchner
						  jon@opera.com
						
						

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language like HTML, but instead of having a single, fixed set of elements, it allows you to define your own - or use a set made by someone else. It even allows using multiple sets within a single document - by using XML namespaces.

Some applications of XML, such as XHTML and MathML, have already become W3C Recommendations. Others are currently W3C Working Drafts.

Style sheet standards, such as CSS and XSL, offer a variety of options for specifying how XML elements are to be rendered. Standards-compliant support for direct rendering of XML is spotty in browsers, so for presenting information to humans, HTML (or XHTML) with CSS-driven styling is the way to go. XML is mostly used for machine-to-machine communication today.

XML is more flexible than HTML, primarily because of the ability to add your own elements and make your own structural systems. This makes it an ideal format for the organization of large quantities of data - it is already in use in many databases and search engines.

XHTML 1.0, 1.1, and Modularization

XHTML 1.0 is a reformulation of HTML as an XML application. XHTML 1.0 can be seen as ideologically coming from HTML 4.01, and being technically stricter because of XML's influence.

XHTML will display in your browser identically to the equivalent HTML. You might want to use XHTML if there is any chance you're going to need to reprocess your content, for example to send it to a PDA; XML's stricter syntax rules make automatic processing of XHTML much easier and cheaper than ordinary HTML.

Ideologically, XHTML 1.0 inherits the following general concepts from HTML 4.01:

• That presentation and document formatting should be separated via style sheets
• That documents should be made accessible
• That documents should be internationalized

XHTML 1.0 also uses the model of three DTDs: Strict, Transitional, and Frameset. This model originally emerged in HTML 4.0 and followed through to HTML 4.01.

Some important technical practices from XML onto XHTML includes:

• That all document types are declared via the correct DOCTYPE declaration
• That the structure of a conforming document contain the DOCTYPE declaration, an html element with the XHTML namespace declared, a head element including the title element, and a body element
• That all elements and attribute names are written in lower case, and that all attribute values are quoted
• That all non-empty elements (e.g. p, li) are properly terminated with a closing tag
• That all empty elements (e.g. br, hr, img) are properly terminated with a trailing slash (
  )
• That documents validate against the DTD that is declared

For templates, please see Learn > Templates

XHTML 1.1 is made up of three primary parts:

• The XHTML 1.0 Strict DTD (with minor modifications)
• XHTML Modularization
• The Ruby Annotation

If you'd like to author documents in XHTML 1.1, you can do so in a couple of ways. The first is by using the public XHTML 1.1 DTD. By doing this, your work will be extremely structured because there are virtually no presentational attributes in XHTML 1.1. The separation of structure and presentation is complete here, and all of your presentation work will go in a style sheet.

Another means of authoring documents in XHTML 1.1 is to tap into XHTML Modularization. This is the breakdown of familiar components of HTML and XHTML (such as text, tables, frames, forms) into discrete chunks. You can then write your own DTD and use only those components you require. This is extensibility in action, essentially giving you, the web author, the opportunity to customize your markup.

The Ruby Annotation is a special means of dealing with certain Asian character annotations. Ruby falls under the work being done with Internationalization.

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a mechanism for changing the appearance of HTML or XML elements, by assigning styles to element types, self-defined classes of elements or individual instances.

Stylesheets can be used to consistently define the appearance of an entire site. Following the introduction of CSS, the W3C recommended that layout-specific features in HTML be phased out and replaced by stylesheets, creating a simpler and more structural World Wide Web.

DOM 1 - Document Object Model Level 1

The DOM allows the full power and interactivity of a scripting language (such as ECMAScript, the standardized version of JavaScript) to be exerted on a web page. (In programming terms, the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 is an Application Programming Interface (API) for interacting with web pages.) It gives the scripting language easy access to the structure, content, and presentation of a document which is written in such languages as HTML and CSS.

The DOM is compatible with future improvements in technology; it will allow any scripting language to interact with whatever languages are being used in the document. This standard will not only make it easier to program dynamic HTML, but will also make adapting to future Internet technology much less painful.

You may have heard a lot lately about "Web standards." I think it's a good thing that web standards are getting more attention. We'll all (designers, developers, website visitors) benefit from an increased adoption of Web standards. If you're wondering what Web standards are and why you should care, read on my friend.

What are Web standards?

Web standards are conventions or guidelines for using Web technologies. For our purposes we'll limit the scope of the discussion to the use of Web standards in building websites.

These standards make it possible to use a specific HTML tag on a webpage, for example, and get consistent results when viewing that webpage in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera browsers. Without standards each browser might interpret the HTML tag differently.

Web standards are defined for many technologies, including HTML, CSS, and XML.

Who defines them?

The World Wide Web Consoritum (W3C) defines Web standards. Industry experts and member companies meet regularly to propose an agreed-upon standard that we'll all conform to.

Why should I care?

Here are 4 reasons you should care about Web standards.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine spiders love standards-based websites. When sites are built according to standards they are generally easier for search engine spiders to index. Clean, valid code also helps out keyword densities by having less extraneous, unnecessary markup to compete with important keywords.

2. Accessibility

Accessibility is the practice of making website content available to everyone, including users with disabilities. As an added bonus to making site content more accessible to this important demographic, search engines prefer websites that are built with accessibility in mind. Accessible websites avoid putting important information in images, make good use of alt tags, avoid using PDFs for everything, limit the use of JavaScript and tables.

3. Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Websites that are built upon standards are easier to update and maintain in the long run. Semantic code, where the information is marked as to its purpose or meaning rather than its appearance, makes redesigns less costly. Bandwidth costs for high-traffic websites can be significantly reduced due to the smaller file sizes usually achievable with tableless code (ESPN rebuilt their website and estimated a savings of 2 Terabytes per day in bandwidth).

4. Cross-browser, Cross-platform, Cross-device Compatibility

By building websites to adhere to standards, your chances improve of having your website perform well in multiple web browsers, on multiple operating systems, and even on multiple devices like handhelds.

Reduced bandwidth

• Massive (X)HTML markup reduction with cleaner code
• Styles and scripts are cached
• Some larger sites have literally saved terabytes in bandwidth costs

Easier Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Web standards-based code is more SEO-friendly with proper usage of headers, less code bloat, etc.

Enhanced accessibility

• Web standards-based code is much easier to make accessible

Reduced risk in current software, future development, and staff turnover

• Application logic is not intertwined with presentation information
• Design changes have less impact on Web software applications
• Easier, faster and cheaper site maintenance, site-wide changes, redesigns, and new development
• Less proprietary knowledge base invested in staff, so staff turnover is less of an issue

Longer shelf life, more durability

• Open standards have longer term viability
• Platform and vendor independence: not locked into a particular Web browser platform
• Neutral storage format
• Future compatibility with newer technologies and browsers rather than proprietary technologies

Streamlined Content Management Systems

• Design not tied to your content store
• Fewer CMS templates due to more flexible markup and CSS
• Easier content reuse across properties

Reusable and flexible content and presentation methods

• Content and presentation methods easier to reuse across channels and properties
• Modular sharing of presentation information
• Content syndication is more cleanly enabled
• Printer style sheets (No more software for printer versions of pages)
• Mobile style sheets for handhelds (No more multi-channel versions)

More meaningful content due to semantic markup

• XML (Extensible Markup Language) compatible, XML tools compatible
• Structured, human-readable content
• Microformats can enable your site as your API (application programming interface) for other services, devices, as well as interoperability with Outlook and other tools
• RIA enabled

Enhanced user experiences beneficial to everyone

• Faster downloads, faster rendering in browsers (people trust faster sites, see Google and Yahoo!)
• Design consistency across channels and Web properties enforced with greater ease

Why your business benefits from adhering to the web standards

Web standards are created to give benefits to the developer and the visitor. As a business, your website must be accessible, usable, attractive and convey a message of trust and professionalism. Getting this right can be both expensive and difficult if done outside of the W3 standards.

Accessibility

Valid XHTML and CSS will ensure that a site is constructed in a way that seperates the content from presentation. There are huge business gains to be had from this method such as less maintenance, more control, lower costs etc., but importantly, accessible content. Not everyone uses a common browser to access the web and a valid site will mean your information will have the widest potential audience.

Usability

Semantic markup creates a usable website. We have all seen cluttered sites with no per-page focus, navigation that leads you into the abyss and forces URL amendments as well as document structure that makes a web page unreadable and hard to follow. You have a point to make. Every page has a focus and the content is clear. Web standards will ensure that people get to the point of your site, quickly and effortlessly.

Compatibility

We are in the 21st century and there are now a wider range of platforms, devices and browsers than ever before. More and more people are accessing the internet and due to this diversity, building a website by following guidelines is the only way to ensure uniformity.

Substantially increased performance

By removing formatting from the markup, you can reduce the file sizes of your website which means people with slower connections or users from around the globe have a better browsing experience. Using tables for layout can sometimes treble the file sizes as positioning requires attributes to table cells and occasionally invisible images forcing layouts to look "correct". CSS can acheive this and more from a light weight text file that when cached, will not need reloading further increasing performance.

Higher search engine rankings

Not only will a user struggle to navigate an unusable and invalid site, so will a search engines spider. If your documents are marked up correctly and fast to load then a search engine will reward your web pages with better listings. Why serve a user a scruffy and hard to read web page when a perfectly readable and accessible page exists?

Powerful designs

CSS is an extremely flexible and powerful way of styling a website. All the formatting is contained within one text file meaning a new design overhaul is very cost effective and fast to turn around from a designers point of view, meaning lower costs to the business. If done correctly, CSS can degrade gracefully in older browsers which lack support into a perfectly readable document which is the beauty of following the web standards.

Lower business costs

A website following the web standards is a more efficient and smaller website in terms of file sizes and bandwidth. This translates into reduced hosting costs. Changing contractors can be a problem if the code is written with proprietary software that creates untidy or browser specific HTML. Following a set of standards means contractors can hit the ground running and give you far better value for money.

A website for you or your business could be one of the best investments you ever make!

A Successfully Marketed, Compliant and promoted Web Site Can Provide explosive Income and work for you 24 Hours a Day!

What is W3C? And why should I care about W3C?

The World Wide Web Consortium Is The group responsible for defining major standards used in web design, such as HTML, XHTML and CSS"

We build web sites that will suit you, your market and the search engines! A good web designer will lead your company to increased profits and exposure.

However, Did you know? 95% of web designers write non-compliant HTML, PHP, and XHTML code? So why worry about weather or not the code is compliant you ask?

A Non-Compliant web site will deter or completely STOP search engines from indexing or reading your web pages and in turn affect your search engine ranking and drive traffic AWAY FROM YOUR WEB SITE.

Our Website designers follow strict coding practices set forth by (W3C) and in turn websites can be read by any browser flawlessly as well as rank high in the search engines. To prove this claim, do a Google search for....

"About W3C, Code & Web Design"

This page will be on top of the first page in Google!

Beware of claims from companies calming to build your website for ridiculously low prices and FAST turnaround time. In the end you will end up with headaches down the road and a site that Google, Yahoo and MSN wont like to index because of errors in the code, bad SEO practices and improper website setup.

QUOTE FROM ONE OF OUR CUSTOMERS:

 "My problem is my website designer promised that SEO services is included in the one-time fee I paid him to construct, host & for domain name of my website. He also charges annual maintenance fee for updates. However, my site only gets an average of 3-5 unique visitors per day. Since its launching last year, I have not had a single client yet. Can you help me out here? I'm willing to pay you the annual maintenance fee. All I want is that my website be propagated to as many viewers as possible. Thanks."

We do not charge "maintenance fees" here at India Web Design, this is a bogus service from web designers all over the world trying to squeeze extra money out of the client! A website is not like a car, it doesn't "ware out" and need maintenance if its designed properly, it should run flawlessly no matter how many miles it has on it .

We have included a website checker on this page to test your existing website with (W3C). Please feel free to check your website with this tool to see if it complies. If it doesn't, then your loosing valuable search engine placement plain and simple.

We also adhere to the strict standards of web design set forth by the webmaster guidelines of Google, Yahoo and MSN.

There are over 200 different factors to consider when building a website that today's webmasters sadly overlook or are too lazy and in a hurry to conform to. We take our time and take web design seriously and in turn build high ranking efficient websites rich in unique content and most importantly CONFORM to today's tough webmaster standards of web design.

This is the MOST IMPORTANT step to building a high ranking website!
You May find Web Design Companies that will build you a "Cheap" web site but that's what you will end up with! Remember

"If the price is too good to be true" then it probably is.

Add your URL in the box then click "Check your site

Web 1.0 (Tim Berners Lee) - The information published on the web in a static manner. It is like your word document on the web with pictures and formatting done neatly. Hyper-linking the web-pages and bookmarking were two of the most important aspect of Web1.0 world. Even today more than 70% users are only familiar with Web1.0.

Web 2.0 (Tim O'Reilly) - This term was coined by Tim O'Reilly The information published in web2.0 world is very different from web1.0. There is a very high importance given on usability and sharing. The information published in Web2.0 world travels like wild fire, either partially or in full. Web2.0 world has less clutter coupled with easy retrieval of precise information and furthermore building upon that information and sharing it further. Widgets and Tagging are two important features of Web2.0. For a comprehensive information on web2.0, click here

Web 3.0 (Sir Tim Berners Lee ) - To be honest, there are varied perceptions of what Web3.0 is. It is purely a word coined as the next version of Web2.0. One basic thing that everyone accept is Web3.0 will be a maze / network of application working together homogeneously. The users can do anything and everything they want from a single source on the web. There is yet a lot of time for Web3.0 world to arrive.

Semantic Web:

The Semantic Web is the extension of the World Wide Web that enables people to share content beyond the boundaries of applications and websites. It has been described in rather different ways: as a utopic vision, as a web of data, or merely as a natural paradigm shift in our daily use of the Web. Most of all, the Semantic Web has inspired and engaged many people to create innovative semantic technologies and applications.It is a collaborative effort led by W3C with participation from a large number of researchers and industrial partners. It is based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF). See also the separate FAQ for further information.

Semantic code:

Semantic code uses html elements for their given purpose. Well structured HTML will have semantic meaning for a wide range of users and user agents (browsers without style sheets, text browsers, PDAs, search engines etc.)

In simple terms, this means:

• Crappy HTML -<font size="3" color="#000000"><i>HELLO!</i></font>
• Over the top XHTML - <div class="big_heading">Hello!</div>
• Semantic HTML - <h1>Hello!</h1>

You should use standard HTML elements for your markup and avoid styling HTML elements to look like other HTML elements. For example, avoid styling <div> elements to look like headings.

• for headings, use heading elements starting with H1
• for paragraphs of text, use a paragraph element
• for lists, use a list item element

The "X" in XHTML means "extensible". One of the most common questions for those starting out is "should I be using HTML or XHTML, and what the heck is the difference?". They pretty much do the same thing; the biggest difference is in the structure. See Table 1 for the main differences.

• HTML
• XHTML
•  
• Elements and attributes are case insensitive, <h1> is the same thing as <H1>.
• Elements and attributes are case sensitive; they are all lowercase.
•  
• Certain elements don't need a closing tag (eg paragraphs, <p>), while others (called "empty elements") forbid the closing tag (eg images, <img>).
• All elements must be explicitly closed (eg <p>A paragraph</p>). Elements without content may be closed using a slash in the start tag (eg <hr></hr> and <hr/> mean the same thing).
  If you are serving your XHTML as text/html, then you should use the shorthand syntax on all elements that are defined as being "empty"(Empty elements in HTML - area, base, basefont, br, col, frame, hr, img, input, isindex, link, meta, param) and place a space before the slash. You should use the long form (with separate start and end tags) on any element not defined as empty-even if you don't have any content in it.
•  
• Some attribute values may be written without being enclosed in quotes.
• Attribute values must be enclosed by quotes.
•  
• Shorthand can be used for certain attributes (ie <option selected>).
• The full attribute form must be used for all attributes (eg <option selected="selected">).
•  
• Servers should deliver HTML to the client with a media type of text/html.
• XHTML Should use the application/xhtml+xml media type but may use application/xml, text/xml or text/html. If text/html is used then the HTML compatibility guidelines should be followed because browsers will treat it as HTML (and use error recovery to account for the differences between the languages).

This chart lists browsers that receive A-grade support as defined by Graded Browser Support.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

What is the ECMA?

The European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) is an organization officially founded in 1961 in order to meet the need for standardizing computer operational formats, including programming languages and input/output codes.

The ECMA is based in Geneva, Switzerland, near the headquarters of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). In 1994, the organization's name was changed to the ECMA - European Association for Standardizing Information and Communication Systems, in order to reflect its broader range of activities.

What does it do?

The main role of the ECMA is to develop Standards and Technical Reports in the area of information and communication technology. As ECMA is an association of companies and not an official standardization institute, they often collaborate with official national or international institutes.

ECMA Standards have been accepted as a base for international and European standards. So far more than 270 ECMA Standards and 70 Technical Reports have been published.

Of these standards 85 have been accepted as international standards by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In addition, 25 have been accepted as European standards by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).

What are the ECMA standards?

ECMAScript (standardized JavaScript)

ECMAScript is a standardized scripting language, based largely on Netscape's JavaScript and Microsoft's JScript. The ECMAScript standard is defined by ECMA's Technical Committee 39 (TC-39).

The main use of ECMAScript, which is an object-based language, is to manipulate the objects in web pages which are specified by the Document Object Model (DOM). These objects (effectively, the elements which make up web pages, or the web pages as a wholes) can then be added to, deleted, moved, or have their properties changed. This lets web developers implement such effects as animated text, graphic roll-overs, and pages that change based on user input without having to be reloaded.

The current ECMAScript specification is ECMA Standard ECMA-262, ECMAScript Language Specification, 2nd edition.

WAI, WCAG & US Section 508