Hi, How much importance does WC3 validation play in ranking well in Google? I have a vbulletin forum with over 1,000,000 posts and my Google rankings SUCK. I'm even using vbSEO. With my niche and amount of posts, I should be ranking much better than I am. I ran the WC3 validator, and it found.... 35 errors on my main forum front page. 34 on my thread listing page 63 errors on an average thread page. How much effect do you think these errors are having on my rankings? Thanks.
Really, thats not that many because most of them are probably repeat problems. A quick "Find and Replace" might be able to fix a lot of them. If so, I would just get them fixed if you are concerned about it. Although, I'm not quite sure if validation makes a huge difference. There are a lot of sites that use tables and probably have hundreds of errors that still rank well. Backlinks are far more important, I would guess.
I don't think it doesn't make much of a difference, but it will help if you fix them. Please post your url for us to have a look.
It doesn't matter at all. SEOmoz has some data on the topic...had like 0 effect...In fact, it seemed that sites that didn't validate actually ranked higher.... perfect example: Google.com http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=w...(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0 39 errors and 2 warnings on a page with nothing more then a couple links and a search field.....c'mon! If it mattered, the big boss would be valid.
I look at validation errors as one of 80 or more things that Google looks at and it's a relatively easy thing to fix. Being valid is somewhat noble and I am sure it is something Google counts its the algorithms. I'd go ahead and fix it as it eliminates one possible mark against you; although from what I have seen you have a low number of errors. My first guesses as to why you don't rank well might be age of site but the number of posts you have indicate that the site has some age and authority. I would guess you have a reasonable amount of inbound links. Do you use Google webmaster Tools? You should find some clues there.
I'd be very surprised if this was part of Google's algorithm. As long as Google can crawl each page of your site without any problems, I think you should be fine.
No one reads the posts....the proof is in the pudding....look at Google.com- it has 39 ERRORS!!!! It DOES NOT MATTER.
Google is looking for good user experience. If your code is not valid, the user experience can be lessened for a sight impaired user or some one who uses a browser that doesn't compensate for the validation errors.
There is nothing to say Google will rank you badly because your website isn't validating by W3C's standards but hey, the more simple and tidy you keep your code, the fresher the content and the more **natural** links combined with good basic SEO techniques, the better you'll rank -- it's pure logic. Good luck
Looks like even you guys can't agree on the issue. I'm using a default wordpress theme and many problems have arisen from my embedding a youtube video with the given code in a post. There are a few other mixed errors, some dealing with the layout. If wordpress's default theme's don't take it into consideration (nor youtube video codes) I think we're pretty safe leaving them. Doesn't mean I'm not going to try and fix them when I have the time.
If you are talking about the index page of Google.com, your logic would conclude that good content doesn't matter. Don't worry about it, just do it. Look at what Matt Cutts had to say about validating code a few years ago.
I think it is important for your customers that they know you build website with no errors in the code, so when it will become important in the near future, you do'nt have to change everthing.