Recent estimates are that 2 million iPads have now been sold and a range of Tablet based products from HP and Dell in 2010 will really make this year the Year of Mobile Browsing. The trick is, websites built under the old standards will not perform well or if at all under this new exciting market for the Internet. As data plans drop in price and more people browse using smartphones and mobile tablets, we’re constantly being asked if the websites built today will work on these devices. The short answer? Yes, but only if built under the 2010 standards.

What does this mean?

W3C Validation has existed for some time. Browsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer have always looked to the W3C (an organization) to set the standards for the web industry. Validation means that your websites will perform on all types of browsers including those used on Android-based devices and the iPad , iPhone or iPod Touch. It is now stated that up to 28% of the smartphone market today is based on the Android operating system, which means compability will become a big issue for companies with a dated website presence.

Why be compliant?

• Compliant websites are (as our time records prove) more efficient. They take less time to maintain and thus cost less to produce. We can produce compliant websites faster (such as having complete websites live within 3 business days).
• Combined with our open source development framework, we can make big changes like changing the look and navigational structure without having to touch each individual page, providing time and cost savings that previously made this prohibitive
• Ensures your website will be compatible with all modern browsers: IE 8+, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome
• Compliant websites are rewarded with higher search ranking in Google. Of the 200+ websites we’ve designed, we’ve found that the websites built under the new standard and that pass validation move up faster in results and stay in top positions longer
• Makes your website Future Proof. XHTML and the CSS / HTML5 standard will exist for years to come. Instead of inline styling and table based layouts, websites should be built using an open source framework that does not lock you in and does not require you to upgrade each year as new browser versions are released

Is your site compliant? To check if a website is compliant, go to:

http://validator.w3.org

Your web designer / web design company / marketing agency should also pass validation. If their website does not, how can the websites they produce meet the standards? Try looking to see if the sites they produce pass the standards as well. You may be surprised.

Investing now in websites that are 100% compliant will help you take advantage of many of the great technologies that exist that not only produce better looking sites than in previous years but they are, under the hood, so much more flexible and powerful.

Check out our home page, which passes 100% for XHTML Strict. Soon we’ll be building websites under the new experimental HTML5 standard. Will your website and company be ready?