The Importance of Valid Code in Web Design
The amount of code required to make a web page look the way it does often surprises many business owners. The sites we all see on-line look so nice and simple, however, their code is often not.
A website with valid code keeps the design simple and not only helps your site display correctly, but also helps the search engines index your site, potentially leading to better SEO. If a site has invalid code it can cause a host of problems.
First off, many web browsers, ie: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, render, or display web pages slightly differently. While this is not normally an issue, if the code is incorrect, or missing certain pieces, it can cause a web page to look different in different browsers. In some cases, the differences can be minor and barely noticeable, but in other cases they can cause the site to look 'broken'.
Another, often forgotten, reason for valid website code has to do with accessibility. For people with poor eyesight that use screen readers to access the web, invalid code can prevent them from accessing the site's information.
SEO can also be effected by invalid website code. The spiders that search engines use to crawl the web and index pages use tags and quotes to divide information on the page, and if any is missing, it can effect they type and how much information they see, and therefore, index.
As a website owner you should make sure that your page is valid. While it might not make any difference to the page that you're looking at on your particular computer, it can influence what others see when they visit your site, this improving their experience. A valid page will also make sure that you're giving accurate information to the search engines so they know what your site is about.
You can find the website validation tool at http://validator.w3.org/