First, lets start with some sort of definition of what Web standards are. In my best effort to encompass the concept in a short phrase, Web standards are the guidelines most widely accepted on the World Wide Web. These guidelines are to ensure that the web sites someone like me builds are created in a way to allow the information to be accessible and to as many people in the most efficient manner. By that I mean you separate the content from the presentation so anyone who needs to view, or in some cases listen to your web site, can do so without any effort on their part.

A quick history reveals that Web standards are the brainchild of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which was founded by Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, who has also been credited with inventing the internet. That guy seems to be getting around. Anyhow, the idea behind standardization is to make it possible for all of us to be building off the same set of blueprints in a way. For example, if you know what the standard is for how to write HTML, XHTML or CSS then you can write code that will be both valid and superior to the old bloated circa 1996 style of nested tables (you know who you are) and helps ensure your site is accessible to the largest possible audience. Some points I want to touch on below encompass just a few of the things that make standards great from a self serving standpoint. If you want to know some of the reasons standards will help you, and in the process your audience, read on.

1. Search Engine Exposure

One of the most important reason to use standards is search traffic. Search engines such as Google actually rank valid code higher than invalid crappy code. I don’t know about you, but to me that’s a pretty big deal. Especially if your main source of income is your freelance job and the referrals that search traffic might bring your way. Research shows that the leaner and cleaner your code is written the better search engines can index the content inside the site and start sending you traffic. However, if you are using a lot of images for text, then you really should be using the alt and title tag to the fullest to counteract the negative effects that can have on your rank. Seriously, let people know what they are seeing, if for some reason they’re not seeing it. It’s so important to not have a broken image, but if you must, make it accessible.

2. You Become Elite

Anyone who has worked hard for something in their life knows that if you follow directions and practice you’ll eventually become better at whatever it is you’re trying to do. The same thing is true when you follow web standards; you become a better web developer. Don’t hold yourself back by trying to learn everything on your own. Follow some guidelines and you’ll thank yourself later when you run into some obscure bug that only effects a certain browser because the nested <ul> tag is out of place. Trust me, I’ve been there. If you can learn to spot the waldo in a sea of red you’re on your way to becoming a pro.

3. Your Impact on the Virtual World is Positive

Karma isn’t just some guy named Earl running around making up for all the bad things he’s done? It also about you or me just being a good citizen and the internet is no different, there are good and bad citizens all over the place. Bottom line, don’t be a jackass and plague the internet with crappy code, it’s just good Karma to do the right thing. And to tell you the truth, I feel a great sense of accomplishment when the Markup Validation returns green! I feel like I did something good for the internet and instantly want to strike my Captain Morgan pose. Anyhow, I’ve learned that good things happen to people who continually do good things. Standards are good, so do it for your rent and some new shit. God knows you need another pair of shoes.

4. It’s marketable

Telling people you follow web standards is a selling point, and it makes you sound cool LOL. But really, if you know what you are doing and walk and talk like a pro chances are people will take what you say with some serious thought. It’s a fact that web standards are going to teach you how to be better at what you do and therefore make you more money. So you can buy shit! Or blow it on Computers like me. Really what it boils down to is you need to be able to write clean well thought out code or you will not make it very far in this business for very long.

In summary, use good clean code and get paid cold hard cash dollars for being such an elite web ninja! Seriously though, standards are awesome and you should try to adopt as many as you can. Granted, it is unrealistic to think you will use them all because it would be super difficult to abide by every rule, but it’s reasonable to assume you can create valid code all the time. And… sales pitch finished.