web standards compliance

Several considerations are given during the HTML development process:

Web Standards compliance: allows for a more consistent display of the site across current browsers, as well browsers to be released in the future. Provides cleaner code which facilitates faster update and modification times on the pages, as well as making it easier for a developer unfamiliar with the site code to make changes without questioning the segment of code or having to spend extra time researching how the code applies to the layout.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): provide a means to change styles to certain elements across several pages without having to make changes in every file it would affect (rather then changing the font tag for a certain element in all 10 pages of a site, a change can be made in one style sheet and it will carry across all 10 pages). This speeds up modifications and updates to the site and allows the user more control with consistency in style across pages.

Web Accessibility: comes hand in hand with proper Web Standards compliance. Developing the site with proper hierarchical structure and using the CSS to apply styling rather then HTML, we set the canvas for users with specialized browsers and screen readers to experience the site as intended and with as little difficulty as possible. Some steps are taken outside of just standards compliance to ensure the proper hierarchy is maintained with the desired design intact.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): although not as beneficial on its own as an SEO plan for a site, by maintaining a proper hierarchy of the site in the code and it's contents, not only does it allow specialized browsers or screen readers better access and understanding of the page, but also search engine spiders and indexes. By properly using HTML tags for content, search engines are more able to assign proper weight to pages based on its content, which means they are more likely to show up in searches relevant to the page in question.