BSI teams up with web compliance company for online standards specification

BSI British Standards (BSI) has joined forces with Web compliance company Magus to raise online standards.

Magus has commissioned BSI to develop what will be known as a Publicly Available Specification (PAS 124) for website standards.

It will cover the effectiveness, function and appearance of a website and will cover brand, legal, accessibility, search engine optimisation, usability and technical standards.

Magus says that the websites of many organisations under perform and even damage the brand because they lack formal standards. It adds that other companies have their own standards but often fail to implement and enforce them.

PAS 124 is intended to put in place a framework for best practice in web standards and to help organisations improve the performance of their websites and protect their brands.

The specification will be developed using a BSI steering group representing a cross-section of the industry, which will review and provide feedback on the PAS 124 prior to its release to the public. Shell, Unilever, Institute of Directors, Digitas and Interbrand are part of the group.