Website Mentors Blog|Kentucky’s Premier Web Design Firm

Having a prominent web presence is one of the best ways to run a successful online business. The more prominent your web presence the more traffic is directed to your website. Whether you have a home-based business, freelance on the side, or preside over a fortune 500 company, people cannot visit your website if you cannot be found. As a business owner and mentor of web developers and designers, it is my job to ensure companies do this successfully. Is your website ready to be put to the test?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium of member organizations, consortium staff, and the public who work together to develop Web Standards and Guidelines. One of tools I frequently use to ensure my clients’ websites are above this standard is The W3C Markup Validation Service. This is a free online tool that checks your website to validate its source code (html, xthml, etc.) using the guidelines set by the W3C for correctly developed websites.

Now, let us ensure your website is following the Internet standards of web design with a little test. Open your web browser and navigate to: http://validator.w3.org/. Enter your website’s address in the field and click “check”. The tool will now scan your source codes and report back with “This Page is VALID” or “This Page is NOT VALID”. Should you receive the dreaded “NOT VALID” simply scroll to the bottom of the page where an error report will display the number of errors contained in your website, as well as instructions for making corrections.

The reason you want to put your website through this test is that improper coding will cause your website to generate errors when tested on multiple operating systems, screen resolutions, and Internet browsers, making it difficult for some viewers to see your website’s content. Another reason is that valid coding will make your website more search engine friendly. Thus, correcting any coding errors would improve your organic search engine rankings and increase site traffic.

For those of you who think your website is beyond reproach, I recently researched all web developers, both freelancers and firms, in Louisville, Kentucky and throughout the state. I created a spreadsheet of 25 + companies, along with their website addresses, and began to validate their URLs. I discovered that in addition to my company, only URLs created by two other web developers passed the test! If you find errors in your website’s coding, but the terminology in the report is confusing, contact Website Mentors, LLC to take care of all your website development needs. After all, as a business owner, your time is valuable and should be spent developing your business, not worrying about your internet presence. Let us help!

Justin Chelf is the President and CEO of Website Mentors, LLC, a Louisville, Kentucky based website design and internet marketing firm.