W3C validation - How important is it ?

[DVDStar]

Hi,

I’ve let this one slip a bit with some of my sites, and have just ran a W3C check on my usb site, and it reports 14 errors.

Most of these are generated by the cms adding "/" to the end of brackets, and it will only insert these again if I take them out.

Therefore, just how important is it to be W3C compliant? Will it effect my SERP rankings in any way ? Does Google take it into consideration?


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Cheers

[wige]

Generally speaking, W3C validation is not necessary. No search engine takes it into consideration. However, search engines do need the code of your pages to be understandable by their bots. One of the best ways to make sure your site can be read by the widest range of clients (browsers and bots) is to pass the page through a validator like the one provided by the W3C.

[kgun]

One of the most complete WPW threads on this topic I know of is this:
http://www.webproworld.com/search-en...tml#post309965

[green8659]

Short answer is NO it doesn't effect your search rankings directly. However, as the number of websites is soaring it wouldn't be unbelievable that Google would eventually start taking it into account as PR and other factors keep getting abused.

[datetopia]

Google doesn't seem to fully comply so basically they probably don't expect other websites to comply either:
[Invalid] Markup Validation of http://www.google.com/ - W3C Markup Validator

[janeth]

Hi,

I’ve let this one slip a bit with some of my sites, and have just ran a W3C check on my usb site, and it reports 14 errors.

Most of these are generated by the cms adding "/" to the end of brackets, and it will only insert these again if I take them out.

Therefore, just how important is it to be W3C compliant? Will it effect my SERP rankings in any way ? Does Google take it into consideration?


------------------------
Cheers

Want make a difference as long as none of the errors affect Google's ability to spider the site.

[incrediblehelp]

SO MANY posts on this already in WPW:

site:webproworld.com validate - Google Search

[kgun]

Here

http://www.webproworld.com/accessibi...tml#post321975

is another classic WPW thread, may be the best on the subject.

[Steven1976a]

I ran a check on Google and they had 63 errors, amazon 1883 errors. So if they cant get it right then I wouldnt worry to much.

[Orion]

I ran a check on Google and they had 63 errors, amazon 1883 errors. So if they cant get it right then I wouldnt worry to much.

If you have the same amount of money for marketing that those companies do I wouldn't worry either lol...

Basically..

It doesn't have to have 0 errors, sometimes there's valid reason to code something different, I think that a competent designer should know that and know why they chose not to use valid coding.

A valid page will:

• not cause any issues with a search bot
• not cause any issues with a browser causing the page to load slower
• shows professionalism especially if you are working for a company that has people in marketing or other designers and developers that will be working on the site
• is a great habit to develop
• you won't have to recode anything should an engine decide to use validation in it's algorithms (note: google does say in it's tips that your code should be clean and well formed)
• a pretty good idea.. but don't lose tons of sleep over it