CODEWITHSUNDEEP
htmlw3c-validation
Jwalk
Jwalk

Reputation: 11

Validity Errors not Major Problems, or are they?

I just ran my website through the validator at w3c and it came up with 144 errors and 122 warnings. I sent it to my web developers, who designed, developed and take care of the site and they said that there are no major problems, while one of my friends said that it is in fact a huge problem to things like SEO and performance. What do you guys think?

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fspotblue.co.uk&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0

Upvotes: 1

Views: 169

Answers (6)

bogeymin
bogeymin

Reputation: 685

You need to find new web developers. The errors here are composed of a) mistakes or b) things a web developer should know. Additionally, the fact that they have not taken responsibility is unprofessional. None of the answers thus far have discussed the actual problems. Here are just a few:

NET-enabling start-tag requires SHORTTAG YES - This is just being lazy. Close the tag. "Everyone" knows this.

document type does not allow element "ABCD" here - This is not understanding DOCTYPES. In fact, there are a lot of problems here related to DOCTYPE, and this can lead to unexpected results with browsers.

end tag for element "TD" which is not open - This is a mistake and is very broken. Some browsers will "fix" this. Some won't.

Upvotes: 0

peter.murray.rust
peter.murray.rust

Reputation: 38043

Are any of your warnings about accessibility? (http://www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted/Overview.html ) In many countries it is unacceptable to have web pages that do not address accessibility?

Upvotes: 0

Quentin
Quentin

Reputation: 943527

Validity errors are not problems right up until the point the the page breaks in a piece of software (browser, screen readers, whatever) that you haven't tested in manually or until you have a problem that takes you three hours to fix when validation would have helped you solve it in one minute if it wasn't hidden among another hundred and fifty errors.

Upvotes: 0

Aaron Digulla
Aaron Digulla

Reputation: 328594

There are two sides to this:

  1. It's often impossible to build pages which are 100% standard compliant because of browser bugs and time constraints. Sure, there might be a solution, but are you willing to pay a full week worth of development time just to get rid of a couple of validator warnings when all browsers display it correctly.

  2. There are more and more programs out there who try to make sense of your site. So keeping the standard violations to a minimum is important, too.

As always in life, there needs to be a balance between good and evil :-) So if you can pay a couple of thousand dollars to your web designers to make your site 100% standards compliant, why not?

That said, it should not contain that many errors. My guess is that it's 2-3 errors which appear 144 times. So to balance your needs and those of your web shop, find the most important ones and have them fixed.

Upvotes: 2

trickwallett
trickwallett

Reputation: 2468

Standards are really important, and yes your site should be as compliant as it can be, so that it can be as effective on any device / browser / future interweb thingy without you having to pay a load more $$ for a rework.

cue religious debate

Upvotes: 0

Dean Burge
Dean Burge

Reputation: 3461

To be brutally honest, anyone building web pages that is not concerned with correctness or best practice, let alone a badge of validity, is doing poor work. I'd be inclined to agree with your friend at passing glance.

Upvotes: 1

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