I’m a big believer in semantic, valid mark-up. Both XHTML and CSS. And it’s fairly safe to say that every website I build now contains valid code, unless in the case of integrating a complex script which makes it extremely difficult to obtain the coveted W3C valid link at the bottom of the site.

There is a huge hype among forward-thinking, standards-driven developers regarding the importance of valid mark-up. This point is made from different angles. In terms of SEO, I’ve come across several arguments that clean code makes it ‘easier’ for search engine robots to spider a website - picking up more information and understanding it better, along with the idea that search engines may sometimes rate a site better because it has better code. Somehow I don’t believe that. I’ve come across a plethora of poorly designed, poorly coded websites that feature extremely well in search engine results.

What about cross-browser compatibility and accessibility? Well there’s no question that both valid XHTML and CSS play very important factors in how a website will display in different browsers. Especially the 2 rivals Firefox and Internet Explorer. The many hours (often late in to the night) I’ve spent tweaking code and CSS attributes to correctly align a menu button or header so it displays nicely in all browsers only lay as proof of the importance of valid mark-up with regards to visual impact.

However - is 100% W3 valid code necessary to achieve this? I’m inclined to think not. I’ve made my argument before against the large web companies that fail to recognise the importance of web standards, such as Amazon, Microsoft and even Google. Yet their websites are still universally and successfully visited by Macs, PCs and Mobile Phones, on Firefox, Safari, IE or Opera and on all manner of monitor sizes. Which does indeed challenge the relevance of completely valid HTML and CSS.

But regardless of whether it’s essential to code well, I feel it is my job, as a web designer, to code properly. A friend of mine once asked why I put ‘xhtml’ and ‘css’ W3 links in the footer of some of my sites. I told him it was so other developers and users could recognise that the sites are built correctly, to which my friend replied “but isn’t it your job to do it correctly?”. I see his point.

Not everyone can code perfectly valid websites because they simply don’t have the know-how. I still hit awkward patches of code that I can’t quite validate successfully so it’s completely understandable that such a high number of sites are invalid. Of course most people have never even heard of the W3. But regardless of whether it’s ‘my job’ or not, I still take pride in creating a website accessible by everyone, and worthy of the little link at the bottom of the page.