Who are W3C?
Within this entry to the SEO Manual we will talk about W3C - an organisation anyone in the internet marketing business should be familiar with.
Who are W3C?
W3C - World Wide Web Consortium is an organisation where staff, members and the public all work in unison to develop web standards for the internet. W3C was founded by Tim Berners-Lee; inventor of the internet as we know it today. There are currently approx. 430 members who all work towards making the internet more accessible for everyone and work to push the internet forward.
Why W3c?
Before the W3C there were a number of issues regarding the internet; especially with data exchange between two different users. Originally thee was a number of versions of HTML around being provided by separate companies. This meant that a website created in one version would could not be viewed correctly by someone with a different version; therefore it made the website unusable.
To combat this problem the W3C started to publish standards. These standards included one version of HTML, XML, XHTML and CSS. Standards are not set at one point in time - they go through a number of edits and tweaks to create different versions before the W3C accepts it as a standard.
Do these Standards have to be followed?
These standards have to be followed at all times; If they are not then search engines can not properly spider a website or other document. As search engine spiders are based off the standards set down by W3C then there is no point in not following the standards; as if you do not follow the standards a website can not be indexed and for SEO purposes would be absolutely useless to you.
Can I check my standards?
There are basic checks you can do for your website; make sure the website validates using the W3C validator. This ensures that the code used to build your website contains no errors or warnings that can potentially stop the search engine spiders in their track.
Summary
Always follow standards; for SEO, standards are one of the main issues that many people overlook. Overlooking these means you may as well not bother trying with the rest of SEO techniques as they will just not work.
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