This phrase refers to the collective set of rules established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) about how code used to create and interpret content within web pages should be written. Although the people within these organizations hold diverse viewpoints from within the world of IT, collectively they are guided by these factors:

• What will provide the greatest benefit for the largest number of visitors?
• Does the method help ensure long-term viability for the document and/or content?
• Will the method make the content more accessible to more people using different
  types of browsers, software, devices, etc.

Within the business world, the value of such practices and their connection to return on investment (ROI) is quite clear. The time needed to write code is reduced and simplified, thereby resulting in lower development costs. Furthermore, the need to rewrite older code is reduced as software and devices used in connection with the Internet evolve.
Design COMP became an active supporter of web standards through the auspices of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) in the later half of the 90's. Independent validation tests are performed on code written by Design COMP to ensure standards compliance is a normal part of our operations. The results for such tests are captured into PDF documents that are made available to our customers as an integral part of our development projects.