I've suddently got a bunch of clients asking to have all there code updated to meet the WC3 standards. It seems word has got round that this somehow helps with SEO.
The problems I have with doing this is:
1) It doesn't help with SEO
2) It is extremely time consuming for larger, older sites and this time is better spent elsewhere.
Now I'm all for following standards when creating new sites, but going through hundreds of lines of code changing <br>s into <br/>s etc seems pointless.
On the other hand if the clients want to spend money on this then who am I to stop them?
Does anyone have any thoughts on the merits of WC3 validation?
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Xhtml/css Validation
Started by
JakeG
, Nov 23 2006 05:14 AM
8 replies to this topic
#2
chrishirst
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Posted 23 November 2006 - 05:22 AM
#3
Randy
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Posted 23 November 2006 - 06:49 AM
Well, if the client wants it and is willing to pay for it... 
The key is to make sure they're fully aware that it's probably not going to have any impact at all on rankings. It sounds like this is already the case, so at least they're hopefully doing it for the right reasons.
If it were me I'd be looking at ways to streamline upkeep issues while I was at it. If I were going to have to dig through all of the code anyway, I'd certainly try to employ use of includes for those elements that are on every page or a significant number of pages. So that the next time someone needed to make any sort of massive change it would be much easier to accomplish.
The key is to make sure they're fully aware that it's probably not going to have any impact at all on rankings. It sounds like this is already the case, so at least they're hopefully doing it for the right reasons.
If it were me I'd be looking at ways to streamline upkeep issues while I was at it. If I were going to have to dig through all of the code anyway, I'd certainly try to employ use of includes for those elements that are on every page or a significant number of pages. So that the next time someone needed to make any sort of massive change it would be much easier to accomplish.
#4
Jill
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Posted 23 November 2006 - 09:07 AM
QUOTE
On the other hand if the clients want to spend money on this then who am I to stop them?
Yep! And what Randy said, too.
Maybe you can use this opportunity to upsell them on a completely new redesign while you're at it?
#5
JakeG
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Posted 23 November 2006 - 10:29 AM
I'd rather they spend the money on work that is less detrimental to the developers' sanity!
Good idea! The site is an old and very over-complicated, the amount it would cost them to sort out the validation won't be a huge amount less than a totally new build
QUOTE(Jill @ Nov 23 2006, 03:07 PM)
Maybe you can use this opportunity to upsell them on a completely new redesign while you're at it?
Good idea! The site is an old and very over-complicated, the amount it would cost them to sort out the validation won't be a huge amount less than a totally new build
#6
Srvwiz
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Sourav Sharma
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Posted 23 November 2006 - 01:27 PM
If are not feeling good with so many clients, then you are pass me some of them. I will take care.
what do you say...
what do you say...
#7
MichaelM
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Posted 27 December 2006 - 04:04 PM
I think the merits would depend mostly on how bad the current errors are. If the only validation failures are the little <br />s etc. that you mentioned, then I doubt it will matter much, but a site-wide "find+replace" could sort that out in two seconds anyway, so why not go for it? 
If the errors are numerous and problematic though, then Id do what Jill said. The redesign would be better for both of you
If the errors are numerous and problematic though, then Id do what Jill said. The redesign would be better for both of you
#8
Akuta
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Posted 08 January 2007 - 08:30 PM
You might already know this, but you could get a find and replace tool and make it change the <br>s in every document to <br /> all at once, in seconds. If you get creative with the tool it can save years of work like this.
#9
linux_lover
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LiLo
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Posted 09 January 2007 - 04:26 AM
If you have PHP at your fingertips you could always run the content through HTMLTidy. I use this for client outputted content from our CMS.
There is a tutorial here
There is a tutorial here
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