Benifits of valid HTML?

Hi

Because I am using IP.Board an upcoming project of mine is XHTML valid. As it is done for me then that is fine but I am left wondering, what is the advantage of this when I write pages manually? What is the point of it all indeed?

I'm slightly clueless but eager to learn

 

It shows your clients/visitors that your page is well coded. Though this is no garranty it will work in all browsers.

 

mostly webmasters do this to include there site in DMOZ
i heard that DMOZ Editors check validations for inclusion

 

One of the advantages of being xhtml valid means your page would be cross browser compatible including future browser upgrades.

 

Markup validity, strictly, well-formedness, is about the language's syntax. It is the grammar of the language. The UA (browser, usually) is guaranteed to understand valid markup. UAs are pretty good at error recognition and correction, but they can goof if faced with broken syntax. Consider this all too common example of improperly nested elements:

<p>Now is the <i>time <b>for all</i> good men</b></p>

Code (markup):

Can you show us the DOM for that bit? There can be no expectation of just how that will be rendered. Most browsers will probably figure something out, but what about your client side DOM scripting?

You can get away with crap for code, but why would you? HTML is not rocket science. There are only about 80 tags, and only a third of those in common usage. Unless you're a simpleton, it should not be beyond your means to learn their proper use. If nothing else, take pride in your workmanship.

cheers,

gary

 

It helps show potential clients/employees that you're capable of producing clean, well structured code.

As said above you'll also know the website will display correctly in any future browser versions.

The list can go on, some find it pointless and others live by it.

 

So I shouldn't worry too much that the CSS has a few errors? Or should I be frantically fixing them?

 

I generally don't worry too much about it as long as I know it isn't incompatible with some browsers. Somewhere I read that SE bots like your website more if the site validates but I don't worry too much about that.

 

A few CSS errors won't harm anyone, as long as the site renders properly. There are literally so many CSS hacks that won't validate, its hardly worth the time.

HTML on the other hand IMHO is different, a well structured document that validates is DEFIANTLY worth taking the time to create.

That's the first time I've heard of that, but then I don't believe that many people bother with DMOZ anymore, it won't wield you significant amount of traffic and is notoriously hard to get into.

I think you can completely disregard that comment, if that were the case, would google not practice what it preaches?

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=w...(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0

 

When your done developing site. I recommend to validate and then use http://browsershots.org/ to view your site in practically all browsers / operating systems.

 

Right!

Wrong!

Valid basically means you spelt it right, so to speak. Think of it like writing a sentence:

"I dog my walked to store the"

It can be valid (all the words are spelt right) but it doesnt mean:
- It makes sense
- It does what you want it to do

Being valid is just one of the many steps in ensuring your work is good.

 

HTML purists will get a kick out of it, but in terms of SEO its negligible.

 

Long story short: the main reasons are accessibility and SEO...

If you are interested in more detailed answer to your question, I'd like to point you to this article: Web Standards Are Still Important

 

Can you back this up with some facts/links to articles?

Last time I checked validity had little effect on either of those things.

 

Yeah that's true. I was talking more in general terms - I meant web standards rather than only validity.

 

Having valid mark up surely means that your web site is more likely to work in the next generation of browsers as those are the standards that the browser manufacturers follow?

As I wrote here Jeffrey Zeldman seems to agree.

 

More likely.

Not will like the poster said.

 

I was just going to say the same thing. The validity of your tags in the first place means a new browser or upgrade is more likely to act as expected.

Like, when I made a goof with floats... everyone showed me like I expected, so I didn't know it was a goof (I thought min-width and max-width counted as "width" on floats-- they don't). Then Safari-for Windows came along and showed me wrong. Had I done it right in the first place, then I wouldn't have had any surprises from another browser (unless it's a bug in that browser).

As far as CSS errors, I'd say worry at least a bit about them, as my Safari example actually pertains to CSS and not HTML, and yet it's the same concern.

 

- Better search ranking/indexing
- More likely to display correctly on mobile phones/hand helds etc.

 

Nah.

Handhelds won't display a proper screen stylesheet properly anyway, thats why they have their own media type. Everything is different - the browsers, the speed of the internet, the processing power of the phone, the resolution...