The importance of valid HTML code

Many webmasters overlook a very important aspect of web site promotion: the validity of the HTML code.

What is valid HTML code?

Most web pages are written in HTML. As for every language, HTML has its own grammar, vocabulary and syntax, and every document written in HTML is supposed to follow these rules.

Like any language, HTML is constantly changing. As HTML has become a relative complex language, it's very easy to make mistakes. HTML code that is not following the official rules is called invalid HTML code.

Why is valid HTML code important?

Search engines have to parse the HTML code of your web site to find the relevant content. If your HTML code contains errors, search engines might not be able to find everything on the page.

Search engine crawler programs obey the HTML standard. They only can index your web site if it is compliant to the HTML standard. If there's a mistake in your web page code, they might stop crawling your web site and they might lose what they've collected so far because of the error.

Although most major search engines can deal with minor errors in HTML code, a single missing bracket in your HTML code can be the reason if your web page cannot be found in search engines.

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.

How can you check the validity of your HTML code?

Connect to an official HTML validator that will check the code of your web pages.

Although not all HTML errors will cause problems for your search engine rankings, some of them can keep web spiders from indexing your web pages.

Valid HTML code makes it easier for search engine spiders to index your site so you should make sure that at least the biggest mistakes in your HTML code are corrected.

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Search engine spiders and your web site

Are you sure that search engines understand your web site? Search engines see your web pages with different eyes than web surfers.

A web page that looks great to the human eye can be totally meaningless to search engines. For example, search engines cannot read the text on the images of your web site, and many don't understand web languages such as JavaScript or CSS.

If you have a great looking web site that is meaningless to search engines, you won't be able to achieve high search engine rankings with that web site - no matter how good and interesting your web site content is.

In general, search engines cannot see content that is presented in the following file formats:

• images (GIF, JPEG, PNG, etc.)
• Flash movies, flash banners, etc.
• JavaScript and other script languages
• other multimedia file formats

Some search engines can index some of these file formats but in general, it's very difficult to obtain high search engine rankings if your main web site content is presented only in these formats.

Search engines need text to index your web site. They cannot know what's written on your GIF or JPEG images or in your Flash movies. If you use a lot of images on your web site, you should also create some web pages that contain a lot of text.

If you want to find out how search engines see your web site, you have to use a search engine spider simulator tool. A search engine spider simulator tool emulates the software programs search engines use to index your web site. They show you what elements of your web site are visible to search engines.

That allows you to quickly find out whether your web site lacks information that search engines need to properly index your web site.

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How to choose the right web page title

The title of a web page is one of the most important elements. Good web page titles can remarkably increase the effectiveness of your web site.

The title of a web page is the text that is written between the <TITLE> and </TITLE> tag in the HTML code of a web page. If you write the right text between these tags, your web site can get more targeted visitors.

Why are web page titles so important for your web site success?

1. The titles of your web pages are important for search engines
   To many search engine spiders the title of a web page is more important than other web page elements. If your web page title contains your most important keywords, it's likely that the web page will have a good search engine ranking for these keywords.
2. The titles of your web pages are important for web surfers
   The title of your web site is the first thing web surfers will see from your web site. Many search engines display the title of a web page as the main link to a web site in the search engine result pages.
   In addition, the web page title is used when a web surfers bookmarks your web site.

While most search engines don't allow you to influence the description of your web site, the title of your web site is often listed without any changes.

What does this mean to you?

It's important that your web pages have compelling titles that are compelling to web surfers and that contain your most important keywords.

For example, if you have a sports shoe shop in London, don't use this title tag:

Welcome to Smith & Son

People probably won't click on that link because they don't know who you are. That web page title doesn't look very attractive to the average surfer. Better use this title:

Buy sneakers and sports shoes at competitive prices in our shop in London. Nike, Adidas, Reebok and all other major sports shoe brands.

Why is the second title better than the first one?

The second title has many advantages over the first title.

1. The second title contains keywords that are important for a sports shoe business: sports shoes, sports shoe, sneakers and several brand names.
   The inclusion of these words in the title increase the change of good search engine rankings for these keywords.
2. The second title informs web surfers about the purpose of the web site and it gives them a reason to click: Buy sneakers and sports shoes at competitive prices.
3. The second title includes geographical information: ...in our shop in London. People who live in Chicago are probably not interested in a shop that's based in London.
   The inclusion of "London" in the web page title allows people to quickly find out if it's worth to visit the web site. In addition, it's more likely that the web site will be found for a search term such as "shoe shop London".

Good web page titles can help you to increase your search engine rankings and to get more people to click on your link.

 

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