Do most clients care how their sites are developed? If they do care, aren't standards an added value? At PBDH we used the fact that we were a Web standards-based team as an added selling point. Many of our clients not only understood the benefits, but were looking for them.

Again, if PBDH (a high end graphic design firm at it's heart) can do it, so can you. Don't let your clients and your account managers get you to compromise something that, in the end, is a huge benefit to everyone involved.

I know, easier said than done, but keep at it.

Conversion of legacy code

To me the only real drawback to going with standards is converting legacy code. It can be very time consuming and frankly I think there are times when it might not be worth the effort. I'll go back to my “Golden Triangle” of goals — if standards aren't going to benefit the business, the user or the organization (people like yourself) — then it's probably not worth the effort.

However, you need to take a long term approach when defining your goals. Next Page