Benefits of Accessible and Modern Code
Immediate Benefits
Lower site development costs
Web standards sites are easier to produce, with far less time spent just getting them to work properly!
Longer-Term Benefits
Accessibility
An increase in accessibility means more people will see your site, and more people will have a pleasant and productive experience once there. The growing importance of accessibility is reflected in the fact that websites are specifically mentioned in The Disability Discrimination Act Code of Practice.
Search engine optimised
The first and most important characteristic of a search-engine friendly site is clean, semantic code that uses XHTML elements appropriately. There is much more to SEO than this, of course, but good code is fundamental.
Far lower bandwith costs
Web standards sites are around 30% - 60% smaller than inefficient older-style ones. For a site with very many visitors this can lead to absolutely huge savings.
Easier maintenance
In the past, a website's code was often very much tied to a specific presentational structure; modern code allows layout changes, even complete design overhauls, with relative ease.
Because the code is clear and logical, developers working with it for the first time will find it easy to understand. Gone are the days of 'tag soup' that only the original developer could fathom!