Everyone is a webmaster

The webmaster is the creator of a web site. Today you'll find it is very easy to find someone who can make a you web site. Thanks to broadband internet becoming increasing available in homes you'll find that anyone with the right software can make you a web site. How can you tell the difference from a good web author and a bad one?

Web Standards

In general, web pages are created using HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) publish specifications for web authors to adhere to. These documents contain technical specifications, validators and examples of code which outline the correct use of HTML. Some developers are even unaware of the W3C's existence!

A well designed web site will make use of more than just HTML. When consulting the web standards you will be shown that the appearance of your web site should be defined in a separate language: CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

HTML is used to create the structure of your web page and CSS controls the presentation or appearance of your site. This can be done using a separate file - which will result in the following benefits:

• Site-wide control of appearance.
  
• Greater control of text's appearance.
  
• Less to download per web page (thanks to the cached separate file).
• Greater accessibility.
  

HTML

The current standard which HTML is checked against is HTML 4.01. What HTML 4.01 offers over previous versions is greater support for multimedia, scripting languages, style sheets, printing, and pages that are more accessible to users with disabilities.

XHTML

XHTML is a more strict version of HTML which allows for less problems in your web page, web sites which meet this standard will thus have greater compatibility issues and greater accessibility support.

Badly design web sites which do not confirm to any of these standards may suffer from a range of problems including:

• Cross-browser compatibility issues.
  Your web site may look fine in Microsoft Internet Explorer on the PC - because that's what your web author uses. Have you tried viewing your web site in AOL's browser, Mozilla and others?
• Bugs, visual glitches and lack of accessibility.
  Certain parts of your web pages may produce errors in other browsers which means some of your audience may simply not be able to access important information. Designing to published standards means that you know your web site and it's features will work on the widest range of browsers/platforms.
  

Benefits of good design

• Greater compatibility across browsers/platforms
• More accessible
• Advantages in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
• Looks good on your web site
  

How can I check my web site?

• HTML code validator
• CSS code validator