Hi Guys, I need your opinion. How important is to validate XHTML? Is there any effect on invalid XHTML on SEO? Suppose H1 is not permitted in TABLE .. is it going to harm my SERP. Thanks in advance.
NO! XHTML has NO EFFECT on the SERPS or anything with SEO. Most HUGE websites arent even valid XHTML and they have extremely good SERP rankings such as: amazon.com = 1541 errors abc.com = 164 errors google.com = 51 errors yahoo.com = 34 errors myspace.com = 159 errors about.com = 82 errors sitepoint.com = 13 errors nbc.com = 108 errors digitalpoint.com = 142 errors If anyone says that XHTML matters in terms of SEO they are WRONG!!!
Just remember that the search 'bots are fairly dumb browsers. The fewer errors they see, the better. Not having perfectly valid markup isn't likely to cause much harm, but why not do it right from a sense of pride. (x)html just isn't that hard to get right. cheers, gary
Hi, Validating a site is very important in many ways. It validates not only the content and the formats of your website but also the CSS style sheet,links,Browsers,Screen Resolution,Connectivity and many others. When you do XHTML validation for your site: It tells that your site is of a very good quality. Search engines can easily index your website Your web pages can be loaded faster Validation of your links will make you remove or correct the broken links
Keep an eye on it when developing new styles, don't go out of your way to make existing styles conform though.
Its nothing to do with SEO, as far as im aware if your going to validate the markup its more to do with caring how your site will show accross the various browsers, i dont think SE's are smart enough yet to notice your tiny mistakes in code yet. Its also about trying to code to a reasonably decent standard i imagine, as if your striving for validated code your already sorting plenty of the errors and trying to keep on top of things.
Thanks everyone for your help. To me, I'm very concern about XHTML validation, provably I feel proud to see my pages are w3c standard validated. Anyway, validation becomes pain when i'm designing my page using TABLE instead of DIV or adding multimedia. Header tags are not allowed in TABLE!
Sure they are, I'm looking at the spec and a valid example right now. Make sure they're contained within a <td> or <th> element though. <table> <tr> <th><h2>header</h2></th> </tr> </table> Code (markup):
Honestly creating a table based layout is more difficult than using proper coding/layout technique Just learn how and never go back to table based layouts =) Tables are not always a bad thing though. But use them correctly. Divs can be just as bad
Wow, I checked amazon.com and W3 said 1560 errors. I'm surprised they don't care about validation! I think valid HTML and CSS is very important. There is more to life than SEO - there is also people on lesser-known browsers (and of course, the main ones) being able to see your page like you intend. Cross-browser compliance just looks professional. And a webmaster caring enough to validate his markup and CSS is usually a webmaster who has the attention to detail it takes to succeed in online business. About tables vs divs, I used to use tables all the time, and didn't get the people who preached DIVS only. Then I started using them, and getting rid of tables, and I just like it better. Valid CSS work is very gratifying.
Invalid code may only be harmful if it prevents your page from rendering or prevents the browser from properly displaying the page. An SE will crawls like a text only browser. Mostly, validated code is considered good practice. However invalid code may be required to accomplish some effects and likely have no effect on the SEs.
Most of the SEOs and many search engine optimization firms completely ignore the importance of xhtml validation since it DOES NOT directly effect SEO or SERP. There is a lot of speculation as to whether Search Engines gives a boost to sites that are XHTML validate. The logic is that XHTML is a contemporary and convenient way to improve your website‘s look in front of Search Engine robots‘ eyes. This is because XHTML leaves the site code quite clean and clear if compared with normal HTML. Sites that take care with their code most likely also have higher quality content. Nobody really knows how much of a boost it might give a site.
Only because XHTML Markup must conform to the rigor of XML well-formedness in order to validate -- if you employ the same rigor in writing HTML Markup -- which you should always do anyway -- it will be just as clean and clear. James
The only thing about valid CSS is that it doesn't necessarily mean your web pages will look the same on all browsers (MSIE 6 comes to mind for many reasons). But like someone said, clean code can't be a bad thing, and it isn't too hard (usually!) to get both your HTML and CSS up to snuff.
This subject crops up periodically on this Forum and always seems to generate lively and often quite thoughtful debate. My own current take: Validation enhances interoperability -- correct rendering in all user agents. However, web pages can, and do, fail validation and still display pretty much as expected in graphical Browsers anyway due to their built-in Markup discrepancy compensation -- in other words depending on the error compensating properties of individual Browsers. I don't see where Markup validity is significantly affecting SEO. Validation does catch many easily corrected Markup errors and the resultant code is consequently easy to maintain or change. Pages containing invalid Markup may not display or function correctly in Screen Readers, BRAILLE interpreters and Textual Browsers or when incorporated into other applications. As we move toward the Semantic Web, the rigors of XML will result in a greater requirement for Valid Markup. Valid and well formed Markup also bespeaks careful craftsmanship and that appeals to many web authors. James
I think it is a matter of knowing what have you done. You code to obtain a visual result. If you have one or more errors, it is good to know as you will have to repeat those errors each time you want to obtain the same result. It is better to adhere to a standard from the start. And, as everybody said, there are more possibilities that your code is rendered the same across different browsers.