| Validation:
relates to Web site implementation and
quality assurance – validation means Web
code (such as HTML) that passes
specifications. The goal is running
code, that is, code that works. Open
standard specifications are set and
maintained by organizations such as
W3C.org.
The benefits of
validation are as follows:
1. Accessibility –
validating your code identifies problems
that search engine
spiders or visitors from accessing
your Web site. Running your site through
a code validator checks for errors that
need to be corrected so your pages will
render well.
Why should you do this?
a) Allows your site to be accessible to
a larger audience (vision impaired,
motor skill impaired, cognitive
impaired)
b) Allows your site to be accessed by
wider range of devices (hand helds,
screen readers, text browsers, search
engines)
c) Is a requirement for some United
States Federal and State Government
sites
2. Search engine (SEO)
friendly pages – clean and simple code
enables search engines to spider your
pages more quickly and completely.
3. Faster Loading – if
your Web page contains HTML errors it
will take a longer time for the search
engines to spider it, therefore slowing
the loading time. If your page doesn't
display in several seconds your visitors
will click away to your competitors'
sites.
4. Reduced server load
– clean and simple code won't tax your
server as much as a site which has
complicated code or contain many nested
tables. Cascading style
sheets (CSS) will greatly reduce the
amount of code within your Web pages.
This will also cut down on the amount of
Web space and bandwidth used thus saving
you money for hosting your site.
5. Easier to update
and maintain Web site – with no mistakes
in your HTML code it is easier and
faster to make changes to your Web
pages. For Web site designers, this
means you will save time and money when
maintaining clients' sites.
6. Browser
compatibility – validated code ensures
your site is compatible with the current
browsers and future browsers. You might
say "It looks fine in Internet Explorer,
so why bother with FireFox? " But the
landscape continues to change. Current
browsers will continue to update their
rules and future browsers will make sure
they are HTML compliant.
7. Access more
visitors – if you ensure your Web pages
appear correctly in all the major
browsers you will be able to reach a
larger audience which then increases the
potential of your site to make more
sales.
Visits: relates to
Unique
Visitors – A visit includes all the
pages viewed by a visitor to your site.
Visits begin when a person enters the
site and end when the same visitor
leaves the site or remains idle for a
period of time (usually 30 minutes). For
instance, one person who returns five
times to a site is counted as one
unique
visitors and five visits. |
