» Why Use XHTML on Your Web Site? by
Chris Hooley of MCP Media, Inc.
As website owners, we all want the same thing. We all want
a great design. We all want to make money. We all want our
site to reach as many people as possible. But how often
have you heard "My
site looks great at home but I looked at it on this different
computer and it looked terrible!"?
Chances are you've
heard this before, or maybe you've even said it yourself.
Thankfully, good web developers know how to avoid this, and still
deliver everything you should expect from
a good website.
Many web design companies only understand certain portions of
creating a great web presence. Some companies focus on web development,
but have limited design and marketing skills. Others are so focused
on bleeding edge technology and design that they forget that
some people view websites on PDAs or alternative browsers that
can't support such technical wizardry. Few firms can find
that sweet spot in the middle where your website looks great
and functions well in all instances. Enter XHTML and cross browser
compatibility.
What is XHTML?
XHTML is the W3C standard for developing cross browser compatible websites.
It fuses all of the display elements of HTML with some of the functionality
of XML. By forcing a web designer to program more carefully and adhere
to strict code standards, XHTML successfully allows a vastly larger percentage
of browsers or code parsers to properly parse your documents. In less
geeky terms, it means more people can see your site the way you meant
for them to see it, and less people see your site with elements strewn
all over their page.
For your site to reach the widest potential audience, it is
important that it is developed in the most cross browser compatible
method possible. XHTML is that method. The rise of handheld internet
ready devices is forcing lazy web designers to program their
sites more efficiently, since most internet ready cell phones
and PDAs require XHTML to be able to view websites properly.
People who use mac computers often see a bunch of gibberish on
their screen when browsing the web because some of the tools
web design "professionals" use create bloated code
that does not render properly. Lazy programmers often only use
WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors to create their
web pages and don't even bother to open up the code window.
When somebody comes to your site and sees a total mess of graphics
and tables all over the place, it is your brand and your site
that suffers. No company looks good with a site that looks bad.
Let's do a short exercise to prove this point.
Right now think
of me as a user who is ready to buy a widget. You sell widgets.
I just landed on your home page. Your site looks awesome on my
computer at home running Internet Explorer. However, today I
am browsing around on my neat new cell phone. Chances are
if you're
site is not XHTML compliant; it looks terrible to me right
now. I don't
want to see this mess on my new toy, so to clean my screen I
have to just click right past you and into your competitor's
home page. Unfortunately for you, their site is programmed in
XHTML and looks perfect.
That's it, I'm sold... and I just bought this shiny
new widget from your competitor.
Chris
Hooley is a web design and web development specialist and founder
of MCP Media, Inc. MCP
Media is a Phoenix Arizona based web design, web development,
and internet business development firm.
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