HTML Site Validation – Will Your Site Pass?
Use the HTML Site Validator Tool to Test Your Site!
Valid, properly written HTML allows search engines to easily read your web page content and underlying HTML code. Much like the English language, there is a right way and a wrong way to write the code that structures your web pages.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international group that works to develop protocols and guidelines that ensure the long-term growth of the Web, has developed standards for HTML development. Web browser developers like Mozilla and Microsoft adhere to these standards to guarantee cross-browser uniformity when displaying web pages.
Search Engines read web sites line by line, and errors in your HTML syntax can trigger a penalty if the invalid code prevents the search-engine spider from reading the content. Invalid code can also cause web sites to look different from browser to browser.
Use the W3C Markup Validation tool at: http://validator.w3.org/ to test your web page code for standard compliance. Just enter your web site URL in to the location bar, and the validation tool shows you any errors that your code contains and also gives suggestions to help you fix any problems.
You should make your best attempt to pass the validation test, but do not spend a great deal of time if it appears to be impossible. I personally have some plug-ins that come with invalid code that I cannot change, so if I want the benefits of using them, I don’t have a choice but to accept the errors. Many sites do not pass, including Google, Yahoo, and most other heavily visited Internet hot spots.
Search engines are unlikely to penalize your site for including invalid code unless it significantly hinders the capability of the search-engine spiders to read your web pages. W3C Markup Validation is primarily in place to ensure compatibility with all current and future technologies, and adhering to the W3C standards is likely to become more and more necessary if you want your web site to display properly on these devices.
Closing Comments about Site Validation
Although it has not been proven to increase search-engine rankings, writing valid HTML is another weapon in an arsenal of best-practice techniques that are likely to have a cumulative effect on overall search-engine approval.
Increasingly, both search engines and article directories are taking the actual code used to build the site into consideration when determining search results. It’s always a good idea to run your code through an HTML validator to ensure that it is free of errors and unnecessary elements. Clean code simply renders better and makes it easier for crawlers to navigate your web site.
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About the Author (Author Profile)
John Engle, known as ‘The Blog Optimizer’, is a Search Engine Optimization Blogging Specialist Taking SEO by Storm! He Specializes in Keyword Research and On Page Optimization. If You are a Busy Entrepreneur that Would Rather Concentrate on What You Do Best, Leave the Keyword Research and Optimization to an SEO Specialist, Hire John as Your SEO Blog Post, On Page Optimizing Specialist.
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