Joomla templates and extensions club

If you are here you probably understand that websites are built with HTML. HTML was made to describe content. As HTML evolved, coders started using it to make the content look more visually pleasing. This was bad because computers were no longer able to distinguish what was content and what was there to make it look good for the human.

Why does it matter if the computer knows what content is?

• It's important for computers to be able to recognize content for a variety of reasons. People with visual disabilities rely on the computer heavily for it to know what is on a website, and how to read it aloud to them. If your website is using poor markup and reading off every single line of information to the surfer, getting the information they want can be tedious.
• Consistency across browsers. Have you ever looked at a website at work, then looked at it when you got home it looked slightly different? HTML has evolved and changed and been patched over so much, browsers have a hard time showing you the same thing. One browser might show you a perfectly laid out website, while another will display the same website totally wrong. You will notice this most when you compare Firefox with Internet Explorer 6. Most every site that looks great on Firefox , will look screwy and off kilter in Internet Explorer 6 .
• Search engines are computers, and if you lay out the information clearly and concisely using proper semantic code then it is easier for the engines to rank your site. Your site might be beautiful, but if the search engine can't read it, then nobody will come to see you.
• By separating the code you will be able to make it much smaller and lighter, and in turn your website will load that much faster. The faster your site loads, the less likely people are to give up on you. (Studies show people will generally wait no longer then 3 seconds for a site to load.)
• Changes to your site are less tedious. If you decide you want your links to all have a underline effect, you can edit one line of code in your css file. If you wrote everything in complex html you might have to go over hundreds of links and lines of code to make the change.

All these points clearly show you why it is vital that you go the extra mile and make sure you Joomla site is compliant. We go to great legnths to make sure our templates pass W3C so your site looks great and follows all the standards the web requires.

My site isn't compliant even though I am using your template, why?

Most likely you are using a WYSIWYG editor for your site to create content. In my next article I explain the pros and cons of a WYSIWYG editor .