W3 Validation - Is It a Waste of time??

[johnafrankllin]

Hi everyone,
I think all of you should give your valuable inputs on the topic of W3 Validation. If it is required or not?
If not why some are doing this?
If yes whats the benefit of it.

Please make your valuable suggestions and guide me to the right direction.
regards
John

[smeagain]

If a job is worth doing, it's worth doing properly.
IMO a proper job would have to include W3C compliant code.

[johnafrankllin]

Hi,
Thanks for the response, but now the question is
Is it only one more thing to do in SEO ?
Does it not have any impact on SERP?

Regards
John

[KingPin]

Validation has no impact on SERPS nor does it directly have anything to do with SEO.

However, you should validate your sites {if possible} for users. If a site does not render in IE, FF, Opera or Safari right then the user may not stay or return to your site.

The only direct impact on SEO I would say validation has is page load times. Sloppy code and code that is not needed is just a no no.

Take a look at some high ranking sites for competitive keywords. Not all sites conform with validation rules because not all the time can you so what's needed SEO/SEM wise and get the validation just perfect.

It's a give and take situation.

KP

[smeagain]

Validation will pick up badly broken code as well as minor non-copliance. Very badly broken code "Can" trip up a spider. The biggest plus is as KP says is cross browser consistency. Worth it just for that.

[dbbrock1]

I dont think it has THAT much of effect. Mainly search engines are concerned with your texts + backlinks. Not how well you can code.

[camp185]

Target certainly thinks so. They just settled with the National Federation of the Blind for six million, U.S. Dollars, and are now dumping money to get the site right. They are also going to have their site audited on a regular basis for the next three years by NFB. Fun stuff!

Link to the Press Release about it: NFB - NFB

[xhan]

I don't think its necessary to have perfect code, because that usually means you have to compromise on a feature you want to include, just as long as your code isn't messy and sticks to the basic rules like b a text /a /b and using & amp ; etc!

[euart]

i don't tink so

[johnafrankllin]

Ok suppose there are three sites
1 has a code like:
<tr><td><strong>This is dummy Text 1</strong></td></tr>
2 has a code like:
<tr><td><strong></strong>This is dummy Text 2</td></tr>
3 has a code like:
<tr><td></td><strong>This is dummy Text 3 </strong></tr>

If a you are searching for the the term "Dummy Text"
Don't you think the no 1 position should be of 1 no 2 should be 2 and no 3 should be 3, because of their html codes

Since Spiders only reads HTML and they may be intelligent enough to know the correct markup.

Any comment please.

Regards
John