W3C Badge of Approval: Is it Really Worth Flaunting?

[dharrison]

I think we've established on this forum on more than one occasion that it is imperative to use clean code when building a web page. But does anyone here actually display the W3C badge on every web page they have built?

My client base is mainly small businesses and although I make sure that my recent projects are W3C compatible, I personally would not go as far as to put the badge of approval on each page. Mainly because I feel that not many of my clients would know what it is (and why should they?) resulting in confusion, but I also don't think its necessary. If someone really wanted to know if it was compatible, surely they would check it themselves.

Also as I have started to use FireFox's Validation tools to check my pages, I am not even sure if the W3C badge would apply?

Do any of you use the W3C validator tool and the approvals religiously and have there been any benefits to you using the badge on every one of your approved pages?

I would welcome your feedback.

[kgun]

It is definitely not the same as the Verisign logo.

[khurramali]

I use the built-in code validation checker in Dreamweaver, then when most of the errors are fixed, I use the validator on W3C website.

Have only displayed the banner on a few websites and evenually had to take it off because it was taking up valuable space.

I do not see how the displaying the badge can help your website. It can help W3C but not you. The search engine spiders read the code and find out for themselves if you page is validated or not.

[dean]

I wouldn't use the badge. I think it's similar to things like, "site best viewed on ...", etc., but I also think valid code is important.
I use the Firefox web developer toolbar extension validators. The HTML validators check directly with the w3c site. I think the CSS validator does, too.

[advancedmerchant]

No benefit. Unlike the Verisign logo (showing you are secure), or the BBB logo (showing you follow good business practices), the W3C logo only takes up space and consumes bandwidth without showing the user a benefit.

Save your space and BW for CONTENT. Content, and faster and page load times benefit the user experience on your site more.

[Mamoon Rashid]

yep..i go with the rest...

while W3C compliant code is important to have...W3C logo is not : )

I just converted my main business site in W3C and I can see results in 2-3 days...is this possible ???

I mean.. google "staff offshore" and my company comes 3rd! earlier it was on 4rth page!! and I view 100 results per page...so a jump from 300+ to 3rd "is" a big thing for me...

so ..Go for W3C ..its a must now adays..and also..."Semantics" of the site is also an important thing.

[StaticBeats]

I've always had a gripe with these badges because they appear regardless of whether the page validates. If anything they should only appear if the page validates, not just because someone decides to add the img src.

For fun, next time you see one of those badges, click on it to see if the page actually validates! You'll be surprised by the results...

My opinion is that if you want, add the button to state that you support web standards. In terms of value? There is none but spreading awardness. IMO that's a good thing tho :)

[bj]

I took it off my sites despite the fact that I'm a rabid standards evangelist. The buttons just take up too much real estate for what amounts to a brag and a link to an organization that, while important, doesn't need my link, they've got enough already.

[G[dot]com]

I use the badge only in my site, for its subject makes it relevant -at least somehow- to include the badge on it. As a way to showcase what "I say do" in my copywrite.

Now, i wouldn´t do it in any other website.

Please be careful about the Firefox validation extension (I am refering precisely to Tidy, not any other). It may show the green checked icon, while the code is not totally free of errors. At least this happens when validating XHTML. Always check here: http://validator.w3.org/ and only if there you get the checked green banner, you should use the badge.

Firefox validation is not enough. And the same goes for this tool: html://www.htmlvalidator.com At least the lite version -free- is very good, yet it´s not 100% reliable to trust it may find all the errors and warnings.

When getting strict, I use Html validator tool -software- to clean the code i handcode in a notepad, then i first check in firefox with the Tidy extension, and finally i go to W3.org to get the final examination.

Hope it helps. Good luck.

[florabalance]

I do not believe that the w3c logo is important for visitors to ecommerce sites.