What importance you put on W3c validation

[TheeCommerceConsultant]

Hi,

Just wondering What importance do you put on W3c validation for SEO purposes?

Just curious, I have never really taken much notice and it seems to not really make any differance, if you run validation on google.co.uk there are 60 odd errors. It just seems to throw up random errors anyway, e.g. no background= element for tables yet they have been in use for years.

So do you think 100% validation is worth aiming for? how much importance do you give it?

What are your thoughts?

[Gorkfu]

Just wondering What importance do you put on W3c validation for SEO purposes?

Well I also try to make all my sites with no validation errors. But some may still have them due to dynamic content. As for SEO purposes, I don't think it has any impact at all from my experience. In the future I'm sure browsers will become more and more dependent on websites being error free. IE8 is looking more that way.

So do you think 100% validation is worth aiming for? how much importance do you give it?

Yes! You want to aim for it as much as possible. For the future.

[camp185]

Just to validate is not necessarily a good reason, but doing everything you can to make your site perfect is a good reason.

I have a great deal of experience with this in regards to all of the usability test I do. PM me if you want a link to my service.

Here are some examples:

You can build a page that passes W3C using h2 tags, even though you haven't used a h1 tag yet. This is incredibly bad form, but is a common error. Having a proper outline will improve your SEO because G will understand the outline of your site better/without error. H2 tags often are highly valued, but only when the site is properly structured.

Another example is the over use of emphasis. You could use a hundred forms of emphasis, screaming at your visitor, and still pass W3C validation. Google and your visitors, will see all of those methods used like: red, bold, big text, highlighted, whatever, and then not be able to understand what has priority. A page should have very limited emphasis used so it is clear what its purpose is.

It is too easy to highlight text, and make it flash and blink.

[Bagi Zoltán]

I doupt that validation has nothing to do with seo, but webdesign. If you follow the standards and make the html code valid or almost valide it is probably will be rendered the same by the different web browsers, which is more important because directly influance the service you offer.

[smeagain]

Google and Co are not going to waste hardware resources on validating the pages they visit, so the only factor here is can they retrieve the page content. Now spiders are very tollerant of Coding Errors and it has to be a pretty well severe set of errors to trip one up. I would expect visual display problems would be evident at least in some browsers first. Having said that, to be certain of Cross Browser Compatibility and a bit of future proofing on this front, the right DTD and Code that Complies with your Declared Standard is a must unless there is a very good reason not to.

[buyithere]

Good Post, I have never even thought about doing that. But if you are going to make the perfect site then it needs to be perfect!!

Its not just google that looks at your site. So do people!

From
Doug

[TheeCommerceConsultant]

Hi All,

Thanks for the posts, ofcourse the atainment of compliance is good to go for just wondering on how you rate it's importance (we are talking exclusivly w3c validation). Getting the site to work on all platforms / browsers goes without saying, it is more important than anything but normally that means validation goes out the window anyway.

For SEO I must admit that I look more at the content through a text browser than anything else.

I have a great deal of experience with this in regards to all of the usability test I do. PM me if you want a link to my service.

Thanks but this is an open forum and not somewhere to punt your service.

Here are some examples:

You can build a page that passes W3C using h2 tags, even though you haven't used a h1 tag yet. This is incredibly bad form, but is a common error. Having a proper outline will improve your SEO because G will understand the outline of your site better/without error. H2 tags often are highly valued, but only when the site is properly structured.

Sure but that has nothing to do with w3c validation that is more to do with page / content structure. You can get w3c validation with just the use of a <p> tag. The question is 'What importance you put on W3c validation' In other words forgetting SEO and cross browser for a minute do you rate w3c validation as an imperative or just something good to go for? how much time do you think it is worth spending on getting 100% validation or is 100% validation just something that would be nice to have.

Another example is the over use of emphasis. You could use a hundred forms of emphasis, screaming at your visitor, and still pass W3C validation. Google and your visitors, will see all of those methods used like: red, bold, big text, highlighted, whatever, and then not be able to understand what has priority. A page should have very limited emphasis used so it is clear what its purpose is.

Hmm, I think you are approaching this from an eye candy / seo perspective for which I agree but this is not really relevant to the importance of gaining w3c compliance, more best practice page structure and not putting off visitors.

It is too easy to highlight text, and make it flash and blink.

agreed