Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Blog

Are you in the process of having a new Web site designed for your company? If so, you should check with your Web designer to make certain that the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) code he is using is valid. A valid HTML code is an important part of successfully promoting your SEO and Web site.

Most Web pages are written in HTML, and as with any language, HTML has its own version of grammar and syntax. Every document written in HTML is supposed to follow these rules. The reason that a valid HTML is crucial for search engine optimization is because search engines have to scan your Web site’s HTML code to find the relevant content. If there are errors in the HTML code, search engines will be unable to find the content on the page, ending your optimization efforts and quest for high rankings.

Although most major search engines can handle small errors in HTML code, a single missing bracket in your HTML code may account for the fact that your web page cannot be found in search engines (http://www.villainsupply.com/). If you don’t close some tags properly, or if some important tags are missing, search engines might ignore the complete content of that page.

You can check the validity of your HTML code via one of several free services available on the Web. The search engine optimization community’s HTML validator is the W3C HTML Validator.

When a browser is interpreting your Web page, if you have valid HTML code, you have the advantage of the browser understanding the exact structure of your pages, and all your visitors, whatever browser, should see exactly what they should see and not a complete mess (http://www.websiteoptimise.com/valid_html.htm). Remember, your badly coded pages may look fine to you, with your browser, but not everyone will see the same.