The Truth About SEO and HTML Validation
There is much debate over HTML validation and search engine optimization. On one side people claim that a properly validated website has more value in terms of SEO. On the other side people claim that HTML validation is strictly for visitors and has nothing to do with search engine optimization. This article is designed to explain why HTML validation is a good idea for a website and PROVE without a doubt that HTML validation has no bearing on search engine optimization what so ever.
The Value of HTML Validation
There are quite a few benefits to having valid HTML web pages. This is all geared toward the visitors and user ability of your website. Obviously there are many different types of web browsers on the internet. Believe it or not the buck doesn’t stop at Firefox or Internet Explorer! The whole concept of validating HTML is to allow web browsers to properly show HTML to the viewer. As the years have gone by, HTML has grown and many tags, elements and HTML structures have changed or been depreciated. However, most browsers will still render depreciated HTML. The issue comes down to web browsers finding multiple instances of validated and depreciated HTML code. This will result in a web page being display differently in different web browsers due to how that specific web browser renders that depreciated HTML. The main benefit you’ll achieve with validated HTML is knowing that all your web pages will appear properly and the same in almost every web browser.
Why HTML Validation Wouldn’t Have SEO Benefits
There are quite a few reasons why search engines wouldn’t use validated HTML to rank websites; the most obvious being that as of the end of 2008 more than 80% of the web pages (not sites) on the internet don’t validate. In terms of relevancy to the keyword or keyword phrase being sought, the backend work of the web developer has absolutely no role. Even the Google homepage doesn’t validate properly, but this is more to have the least amount of bytes required to render their homepage.
Let’s be honest, there is no reason why HTML validation would play a role in relevant search results. However, there is a plus side that can relate to search engine optimization. Many webmasters will argue that a validated website will appear more professional and promote more natural linking and that will have SEO benefits. However, this is assuming that people doing the natural linking are going to care that the web page is HTML validated. In my opinion, they’ll care more about the accuracy and quality of the content.
Evidence that Google Doesn’t Care
Bottom line, whichever side of the argument you are on, an official and important employee of Google has already official stated that HTML validation plays no role in how Google ranks its search results. This is the smoking gun to prove that validating your HTML code will have no bearing on your search results position in Google’s index. You’ll find this statement made loud and clear at about 1 minute and 40 seconds into the video. You can take this articles presentation and evidence however you like, but the hard fact states that search engine optimization should not include validating HTML code. However, validating HTML code is a good idea in terms of user ability.
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[...] engine optimization is to place relevant keywords into the code of the website. This includes the title tags and META tags. This is important because search engines often consider the prominence of keywords when evaluating [...]
Some seo experts charge top dollars for website optimization.:`”