The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international group that works to design protocols and develop guidelines that make sure that the long term growth of the Web has created standards for HTML development. The W3C has published more than 115 such standards, called W3C Recommendations since 1994.
They mostly strive for compatibility among the hardware and software that is used to access the Web. The World Wide Web Consortium develops specifications, guidelines, software, and tools to help get the Web to its ultimate potential.
They are also involved with education and outreach and provide an open forum for discussion about the Web.
When presenting websites, web browsers like Mozilla and Microsoft adhere to the standards set forth by the W3C to guarantee web browser uniformity.
Search engines read websites line by line in your syntax. If you have any errors, you can be penalized especially if the code keeps the search engines from being able to read your content.
You should be testing your website while it is being built for W3C compliance. There is a tool you can use to check for compliance at http://validator.w3c.org.
Enter your website URL and the validation tool will reveal any errors that your code has and will provide suggestions to help you fix any problems.
If you end up having a hard time complying, don’t waste too much time. Keep in mind that many sites do not pass. Even so, try your best to pass and put a limit on the time spent on this task.
The use of the Internet on cell phones and PDA devices is becoming more prevalent. The importance of adhering to the W3C standards should be a consideration for you especially if you want your website to display properly on these devices.
Writing valid HTML code has not been proven to enhance rankings however it is likely to have a cumulative effect on overall search engine endorsement.
Steps to Validate HTML
1. Go to http://validator.w3c.org
2.In the address bar, enter your URL to test for HTML standard evaluation.
3.Click “Check”
See the results of the validation check.
