What is Validation?

In the field of website development there are advocates of validation and those who say it doesn't matter. So, exactly what does validation mean?

When you validate web pages using validator software or internet based validation tools or services, you simply check the content of the code to ensure it is valid and free from errors. Basically, validation ensures that code meets the basics required to meet industry standards.



While one version of validation tools may give a list of text or data that explains what code doesn't meet strict standards. Other services may actually provide comments or support including documents filled with info to help the user start correcting erroneous code on their pages.

Advocates of validation usually use strict DTD and are perfectionists. Many claim that the advantages of validation are that it increases traffic and improves search engine rankings as well as making the web pages more likely to appear free from errors in various browsers. Another advantage of validation may be future compatibility. For instance, XHTML came about to exploit the advantages and minimize the limitations of XML and HTML. In the future, other languages are sure to emerge and converting to them will be less problematic if existing code on a server is up to standards.

More reserved developers who don't tout the benefits of validation argue that to validate a file is too time consuming with little benefits as validation doesn't ensure that the web pages will work in different browsers nor it has nothing to do with high search engine ranking. They feel if they get their doctype right, that's good enough.