Are you looking to build a design a website for the very first time? Do you wonder what the secret is to building one that lines up with the world wide web? If so, then you need to learn all that you can about web standards.
Doing so can help you get a better feel for why web standards are put in place. They’re there to protect the integrity of the world wide web and make sure that one particular browser can’t take full control.
See below for several reasons why web standards are so important and why you should consider them in your plans.
What Are Web Standards?
For those of you that are unfamiliar with the term, web standards are regulations that were cast down by the World Wide Web Consortium. These regulations help set a guideline and expectation for how to code and set up a web page.
However, these aren’t rules that are meant to penalize you. They’ve been put in place for the safety and security of site owners and site users alike.
Not to mention that web standards make the entire world wide web more efficient. Thanks to all websites having a particular coding background, search engines like Google can use their algorithm and direct site users (like you) to pages that can help you solve your biggest pain points.
They also help reduce the downloading time, which has paved the way for the quick-loading internet that we all know and loves to this day.
The standards streamline the way you design your site. Since everything is put on one particular style sheet, the colors, fonts, and content can be switched out with relative ease.
It’s all meant to encourage a safer and more organized internet. Without web standards, the entire world wide web would be convoluted and (more than likely) completely corrupt.
The Benefits of Web Standards for Your Site
Now that you understand what web standards are, you probably already have an understanding of how they can benefit your business’s website. See below for more benefits of having these guidelines to follow as you make/edit your site.
- Consistency
As was pointed out earlier, web standards encourage all web designers to use what’s known as a cascading style sheet (CSS, for short) to create the website. This creates the aesthetic and design of your site.
Thanks to style sheets, you have a consistent way to change or tweak the design of your website at any time. If you really wanted to, you could rearrange your entire website in almost no time at all. This wouldn’t be possible without one style sheet to place all the coding on.
This is what makes drag and drop website builders such as WordPress so effective. They offer one standard style sheet for their users to customize however they like.
Having a consistent style sheet also helps you win over your customers. As Charles Duhigg points out in his powerful book The Power of Habit, customers only like differentiation to a certain point. As long as the “uniqueness” of your site is within the comfy confines of a site template that they’re familiar with.
- Equal Opportunity
Imagine, for one moment, if web standards didn’t exist. Powerful internet browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome would set the standards for everything.
They would be the ones to tell us what’s acceptable and unacceptable for designing your website. It would also increase the difficulty of creating a website, which might have resulted in many small businesses being unable to ever design one for their brand.
Thanks to web standards, you and every other small business out there can optimize your website however you so choose. You can fixate on your target market and reel in passive income for many years to follow.
- Better Experience for Site Users
Site users have become spoiled by the loading time of today’s websites. If a website takes longer than 5 seconds, they’re more than likely hitting the “back” button on their browser and never returning.
Imagine if that happened with every site you visited. The internet wouldn’t have flourished as much as it has. eCommerce would be non-existent.
Web standards play a huge role in creating a great experience for site users. By encouraging the use of style sheets, the page’s file size is reduced and makes it easier to load. the web standards also make it possible for web pages to fit perfectly on desktop screens, smartphone screens, or any other device a site user might have.
- Quicker Development Turnaround
Websites are being created faster than ever before. The web standards have made this possible through style sheets, which are compatible with all the different browsers out there in the world.
Thanks to web standards, creating and maintaining your site takes almost no time at all. If you identify a problem with your site, it can be fixed at a moment’s notice.
That wouldn’t be the case without standards. There would have to be more mixing and matching by website developers, which would take a significant amount of time to troubleshoot.
Use Web Standards to Maximize Your Website Today
Now that you have seen all of the different ways that web standards have benefitted your business website and sites like it, be sure to use this to your advantage.
If you’re looking to create a new site, then you can use this understanding of web standards to find the right developer or website builder to use.
Be sure to browse our website for more articles on web standards, as well as many other helpful topics that you will enjoy.
