Validation and its Impact On Ranking High On Google

Why are the search engines moving towards rewarding validated websites with better listings?

There are tons of opinions regarding validation and the benefits therein – robots are computer programs that do not care about what the human see’s or what the human clicks on – but rather looks at what links and content are parsed correctly. We build sites to rank high on google so we can get visitors to call us, or email us. We don’t really consider what is best for the bots. Is this tragically flawed? Should we care about the bots that are sent out to get information from the Internet?

Should our site pass mustard with the world wide web consortium as far as it’s coding is concerned? Many say it’s a waste of time since the search engines don’t seem to discriminate against a site that has invalid code, or do they?

Some of us purists claim that a perfectly coded site will do comparitively well (vs the same site with improper coding). We of course claim proper coding is a must. In fact we think that search engines owe it to themselves to make sure that 100% of the sites listed are valid and reliable by www.w3c.org.

One element of validated pages is that a validated page will weigh less than your invalid page. In the case of this site the pages now weigh 40% less than they did before we moved to a strict XHTML design – and so what? What’s the point? Well folks imagine your favorite search engine cared about your surfing experience. Don’t you think they would want your pages to load faster (all other factors remaining the same).

Don’t you think they would make more money if in the four hours you spend surfing the Internet each night you visit 40% more sites and click on 40% more links. Are you starting to see why it is in the search engine’s best interest to favor websites that adhere to a valid code standard.

Another lost point in the arguement against validation is that search engine bots will cover more code when they are scanning valid error free pages, that is a fact. Imagine if the entire Internet was coded in valid strict XHTML code for three months.

Don’t you think Google would index the 8.3 billion pages more often and don’t you think saving Google resources makes for good business (if you own Google stock it certainly is)? Don’t you think the code to content ratio would be lower in our three month perfect world and wouldn’t you like to see great content listed on the first couple of pages of your favorite search query? Us too.

This last point is not etched in stone or anything but “usually” valid markup also means there is a better chance that the rest of the important code of the site is in order, and since this proper code will have a bigger influence on the search engines, therefore you can count on better listings from valid code (all other things being equal).

Put it this way, the better and more valid your code the better chance you get higher listings for your preferred keyword and the better the odds that more people see your site. If that is not the best reason to validate your code what is?

Another 9 Tips to Boost Your Search Engine Ranking

Whilst these tips do not have as significant as an effect as the previous tips I have discussed they are still important – they may make the difference between getting on the first page or not. A key factor to remember when trying to get high rankings for your site is that there is no magic bullet, no single thing you can do that will guarantee a top spot. It is all about carrying out a range of tasks that will incrementally get you where you want to be.

1) Text around the anchor text of a link
As well as the anchor text of the link itself the text around the anchor text is also important – it sets the context. For example if you have text that is describing a cruise on the Nile and then suddenly there is a link to an automobile site with the anchor text of automobile repairs then it is not going to look too natural to the search engines!

2) The font size of your keywords
As well as using tags such as the h1 or b tags etc to highlight the important keywords on your page you should also consider increasing the font size of these keywords. In essence anything that you do regarding formatting of text to highlight it to a human visitor will also add weight to a spider visitor.

3) Formatting – use selectively
As discussed earlier you can use various formatting tags to highlight your keywords but if you use too much formatting and it ends up making your page look like a dogs dinner then it will have a negative effect rather than positive. Remember – look at your page and if it looks presentable and easily readable then it is probably OK, if it looks like an abstract painting you have gone too far!

4) Sitemaps
Sitemap – get one!, at the very least they are useful for the search engine spiders but they can also be useful for human visitors as well. If you do not want to generate one by hand then there are many free ones available, personally I use the Google XML Sitemaps plug in for my Wordpress blog.

5) Site size
It is simple really – the more content you have the more likely you are to get one of the pages a good ranking. However the principles of good quality content apply – it is no use simply generating hundreds of low quality pages simply to bulk out the site. In addition to this, if you have a large site then you must ensure the content is accessible – you will need a good menu system.

6) File / Page Locations
This may sound a strange one but the actual location of your files / pages relative to the root of the site may have an effect on your rankings – pages closer to the root tend to get better rankings. Therefore but all your pages with primary keywords as close to the root of the site as possible – do not bury them many layers down.

7) Domain names – sub domains v top level domains
Is a separate domain name better than just having a sub domain – well yes actually – so mykeyworddomain.com should rank better mykeyword.genericdomain.com. So if you are serious about your site get yourself a proper domain name (preferably one where the domain name relates to your keyword!)

What type of domain to use?
There is a clear hierarchy of domain names – if you qualify for a.edu or.org name then they have the greatest weight with the search engines, following after that are.com domains and then all the rest (.net,.ws etc) all trail behind. If you are starting a new site you should bear this domain name hierarchy in mind.

9) Hyphenated domain names.
Hyphens help – particularly where you are optimizing for keyword phrases rather than individual keywords. This applies to both domain names and page names – my-keyword-site.com is a better name mykeywordsite.com and my-keyword-page.htm is better than mykeywordpage.htm. A guiding principle, as with most search engine stuff, is: if it makes it easier for a human to read or use then it will help to improve your rankings.

We hope these tips prove useful to your online marketing efforts, please look out for more of our articles on this and other related subjects.