One of the web’s preeminent marketing websites, MarketingSherpa, has just published an article which may start a web standards stampede. The focus is Firefox, but the underlying message is standards, standards and more standards:
Your more savvy Web designers are likely all agog over Firefox, because its support of Web Standards makes it easier to design and maintain effective Web pages. …
For marketers, these standards are so darn important because they affect the bottom line: your budget. In fact, The Web Standards Project … estimates that before today’s growing lack of support for standards, the “fractured browser market” was adding at least 25% to the cost of developing Web sites. And that’s just one tiny piece of the revenue picture.
“Housing construction, electrical wiring, automobile design, all these benefit from design standards,” says Scott McDaniel, MarketingSherpa’s own Internet Director. “Web site construction is maturing in much the same way.”
The author, Heidi Anderson, even tallies her “6 Business Benefits of ‘Web Standards-based’ design”:
- Increased search engine optimization
- Proper content presentation, including shopping carts and “contact us” forms
- Decreased development and maintenance costs
- Lower bandwidth usage
- Faster download times
- Web viewing beyond the computer (your site on wireless devices & RSS)
It’s nice to see marketers taking note of all we can do for them. Now roll up your shirt sleeves and get to work.
