W3C HTML Validator

Cut and paste a complete URL (including http://) into the space below to find out if it is 100% error free HTML code.

What is W3C?

The Web and HTML have been around a long time now, and you may not realize that the language you are writing your Web page in was standardized by a group of around 500 member organizations from around the world. This group is the World Wide Web Consortium or W3C. The W3C was created in October 1994, to

"lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability."

They wanted to ensure that the Web continued to work no matter what business or organization built tools to support it. Thus, while there might be browser wars in the features that various Web browsers offer, they all can communicate across the same medium - the World Wide Web. Most Web Developers look to the W3C for standards and new technology. This is where the XHTML recommendation came from, and many XML specifications and languages. However, if you go to the W3C Web site (http://www.w3.org/), you may find a lot of jargon that is unfamiliar and somewhat confusing.

Is it important?

Not really. Websites can still operate perfectly and be read by search engines if they do not pass the validation of W3C. However, a site that is compliant will have an edge because it can be read quickly and accurately by the search engine spiders and all major browsers.

We don't deal in dirty code.

Very often we will see sites for other web designers, and a quick check of their home page reveals that the code is invalid, sometimes having hundreds (or thousands) of errors. We would be embarrassed by this. All of the coding that we write is checked for accuracy and compliance. After all, if you are paying good money for a top quality website, would you want anything less?