By Mikal E. Belicove|For Entrepreneur magazine|January 1, 2010

When I consult with a business about its website, I start by asking if it has ever viewed its site’s source code. For the uninitiated, source code–which can be generated by many different computer programming/scripting languages and is accessible under the “View” menu of most web browsers–is what makes your website operational.

Comprised mostly of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and JavaScript, source code looks more like a mangled car wreck than anything resembling a website. But trust me. That mangled wreck, when coded according to universally accepted web standards, makes your website hum like a well-tuned race car.

But if your code doesn’t meet minimum standards for the web, your business will suffer an increase in cost to maintain the site–as well as a decrease in usability, which almost always results in a loss of customers.

To guarantee that your website runs according to the most basic of expectations and is optimized for indexing by search engines, make sure your webmaster is up to speed on the latest standards and recommendations from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Founded by Timothy Berners-Lee, the computer scientist credited with inventing the web, W3C is recognized as the driving force behind the standardization of programming and design protocols and guidelines that ensure both long-term growth and…

Continue Reading: Go Right to the Source (Code)