It 237 Professional Standards

Professional Standards Web standards promote higher accessibility and usability; it suggests a set of rules in which every developer can follow and understand (Boudreau, 2002). Standards set by W3C, World Wide Web Consortium, will ensure that most browsers used will present the website as it was intended to be, without time consuming rewrites of code for specific browsers (W3schools, 2013). Accessibility is very important as it allows the web to be used by individuals with disabilities but also individuals with unconventional browsers to access any web page. In today’s society web browsers are not only used on desktop computers but also from handheld devices to mobile phones; standards help achieve a more stable web experience no matter when and where you access the web. Backward browser compatibility is another important factor brought by web standards; web pages coded in new versions of web browsers are still generally supported in an older version and vice versa. For developers, coding within the web standards can minimize both development time, code maintenance time, and can ensure increased visibility in various search engines. One of the many standardized tags used in HTML is the tag. Meta tags do not have an effect on how a web page is displayed nor does this information appear to the user; although it can provide information or description about a web page. This information provided is used by search engines, such as Google and Bing, to better understand what your site is about in order to list on search results. According to (Kyrnin, 2013), “Focus on one phrase that really captures what your page is about, and make sure that that phrase is repeated in the content, the headlines, and links within the page.” Using effective tags can help promote accessibility and search engine optimization resulting increased visibility. Web standards include recommendations for HTML, XHTML, Cascading style sheets, Dom, and the standardized version of

References: Kyrin, J. (2013). What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). About.com. Retrieved from http://webdesign.about.com/od/seo/a/seo_basics.htm W3schools. (2013). Web Standards. Retrieved from http://www.w3schools.com/web/web_standards.asp Boudreau, D. (2002). The Importance of Web Standards. Sitepoint. Retrieved from http://www.sitepoint.com/importance-web-standards/