The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
August 2009, Volume 8, Issue 8
HTML Coding Errors and Their Impact on Search
By Tom McGuane, Search Marketing Analyst, iProspect
Many marketers spend top dollar to get a great looking website, but when it's built with little regard for web standards, it can not only adversely affect how your site is displayed, but also have serious search engine marketing implications. Given that, marketers need to ensure that their website is up to code.
With imminent deadlines and bandwidths stretched thin, Web marketing professionals rarely find enough time to slow down and check for HTML coding errors. While they might check a site's pages in the major browsers -- IE6, 7, 8, Firefox, Chrome, Safari -- rarely do they bother to make sure that their code meets the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards.
This is hardly surprising since when a browser encounters invalid HTML, it takes its best guess at what the designer had in mind. What's important to note however, is that a search engine spider won't necessarily do this. Instead, it reports the code back to the index "as is." The result? It can cause problems in both the indexing process and the search results that follow.
To avoid having this happen, follow the below three tips to ensure that your website is up to code:
1. Educate yourself:
Become familiar with the W3C Markup Verification System. The W3C offers this free service to anyone who wants to see how their code stands up to close scrutiny. If there are problems with a piece of code, the system will flag it as a warning or an error. A warning signifies that this problem should not cause any major issues, but it is not technically correct. An error means that this is an issue that could potential impact spidering or display.
2. Do the prep work:
Pulling down your entire site just to fix a few coding errors is not the best way to deal with the situation. Instead, run the files through the verification system before they are live on the Web. This will give you a chance to deal with coding errors in advance. While there may not be time to fix every error -- and that's OK, as not every error absolutely needs to be addressed -- the important thing is to address critical errors that can affect search or display. Other errors can be saved for future updates when you have more time.
3. Keep a list:
Whether you have time to fix them or not, be sure to keep track of the coding errors that you encounter. That way, if any code is changed or added and causes a display or indexing problem, having this list will save you a lot of time and energy.
Ensuring that your website is up to code is critical to its success and how it gets indexed in the search engines. Without verified code, a lot of time, money, and effort can go to waste. Think of it this way: A Web page that can't be crawled by the search engines is like a billboard in the woods. What's the point of having it if no one can find it?
