Web designers are always learning new technologies and the process of coding web pages has evolved over the years. There are many designers who still use HTML 4.01 to code their sites. There’s nothing wrong with it but websites built using XHTML and CSS have distinct advantages:

• less bloated code resulting in faster loading sites that are crawled easier by the search engines
• less work to maintain as only the content is on the actual pages and the design and layout can be changed by modifying one file, the CSS
• more accessible to a variety of browsers and devices, including Braille, therefore more visible
• more visibility=more traffic

Switching to XHTML from HTML is not really that difficult, since XHTML is simply a stricter form of HTML as follows:

• a doctype indicator must be included in all documents
• tag names must be in lowercase
• all documents must be structured properly
• all tags must be nested properly
• all tags must be closed
• all tag attributes must be quoted

Technology changes rapidly, and failing to conform to Web Standards could be a detriment to a web designer’s business and their clients. As a more web developers make the migration to XHTML, they are laying the foundation for the future. With XHTML and CSS, the possibilities are endless.