It may take ages, but it is all worth it in the end. Validating your
site’s HTML to XHTML gives your visitors a good impression on your Web
page, showing them how tidy - and how strict - your code really is.

XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language) is fairly simple
to learn and to catch on. Basically, it’s just simple add-on tags and nesting
your HTML code properly. Not much of a reader and a learner? The XHTML
documentation is short, and is probably the most simple thing you
will learn once it comes down to Web design. Besides, there must be
tons of tutorials online that you can find.

Another great thing about XHTML is it reduces the problems between
different browsers, and nowadays it is the standard for making Web
pages. Most WYSIWYG editors have options to make your page XHTML-compliant,
or not. The thing that makes XHTML so “strict” is that it does
not allow browsers to ignore missing tags like standard HTML does.
The reason why most browsers ignore little HTML errors is because
handheld devices don’t have the power to show badly formatted pages.
This will mean that your code is much more strict, coded properly, and
will show up correct in any browser.

W3C has now confirmed XHTML to be a Web standard, and, since it is
backwards-compatible, you can start using it on your Web page now. And
even if you don’t feel like upgrading to XHTML strict now, it is a good
time for many reasons. First, for your code to be formatted
better on your Web site. Second, because in the nearby future XHTML
will replace HTML. Even switching to XHTML isn’t very hard. There are
very little major changes. Some of them are basic: All tags must be in
lowercase, documents must have a doc type, all tags must be closed,
and all tags must be properly nested.

In conclusion, it is always best to keep your Web site up-to-date with
the latest standards. And XHTML is a good way to start. [Peter Barbosa]