Quote:
Originally Posted by jrdmra
Valid Code is simply good practice. I agree that it should not be sacrificed and any SEO worth his salt should be able to do his work without breaking the code.
How does any one know if valid code influences or doesnt influence serps? simple you dont.... and dont claim to know because well you dont know and there has been no studies done which prove it. Show me one, you cant...
That said any professional web designer would build his site valid, thats part of what separates the pros from the amateurs. |
I find sweeping generalizations of this nature rather irritating. I was one of the first Web site designers in the U.S. and have been earning my living at it and winning awards since 1994. And previous to that, I had a long career in advertising agency and design studio design. So I definitely feel I'm qualified to call myself a professional.
Nonetheless, I deliberately CHOOSE to build my real estate clients' sites on top of a system that I know won't validate. I have no control over the technicalities that prevent it from validating. I do know that it's a very effective system for generating leads and getting new clients for my realtor clients.
Regardless of the fact that the system won't validate and is built on tables, both new and old sites built on the system can get very good SERPs. In fact I have two client sites sharing space on page one Google for the same highly competitive search term. One site is new, created and designed just over a year ago. It has been professionally
SEO'd and has a ton of IBLs. The other site is a redesign of a pre-existing site that was not originally on the system but which has a ten-year old domain name. It has had some on-site
SEO work done but has few IBLs.
Another site has moved up around 40 positions in SERPs for one keyphrase in spite of having been moved to the same system just a month ago.
All three sites are generating great leads for the site owners and, as far as they're concerned, that's all that matters. They couldn't care less that their sites don't validate. They convert leads--and that's all that matters. The last site I mentioned as brought in two $500k buyers, one $2.5 MIL buyer, one $5 MIL buyer and one $1.5MIL home seller in just the last month, though it got few leads before I redesigned it and moved it to its current host just over a month ago. Would any of these clients say that I'm not professional because their sites don't validate? I don't think so.