Dude, My Website Totally Validates. Check Out My Sticker!
Bragging that your website validates according to W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standards makes about as much sense as an author bragging that their manuscript has 1 inch margins. Meaning, it tells nothing about the quality of the content. Sure, it’s nice to validate and track down every error no matter how small, but it doesn’t mean anything. I know all the validation Nazi’s out there will take me to task for saying that but it’s true. Almost no one validates. Google doesn’t, and Yahoo and Twitter are full of errors. On the other hand, my website has NO errors and passes easily while Twitter has 95 errors. Does this mean Claytowne.com is 95 times better than Twitter? Only a fool would say so. So if your site doesn’t validate you’re in good company. Don’t believe me? Then go validate yourself!
Oh no, Google doesn't validate!
OMG! Either does Yahoo!
Oh no, not Twitter too! Well I won't be using that site anymore. If they don't care enough to validate their own site then why should I care about them? What losers!
Here are Ten Important Things That Website Validation WON’T be Able to Tell You:
- Your website is spiderable by search engines
- Your on-page SEO factors are strong and effective
- You have good quality inbound links
- The navigation is clean and user-friendly
- The design is attractive and brand appropriate
- It has original content that is clear and compelling
- It has great use of anchor text and calls to action
- You don’t have any typos or grammatical errors
- It has a high conversion rate
- It will make money
In short it will tell you everything except what you really need to know to make your website successful. So validate for fun, but not for profit. Go ahead and put the W3C icon on your site if that makes you happy. Learn good standards and practice them. It definitely won’t hurt and can only benefit you and your website in the long run. But please don’t tell me that just because your code validates it makes your website good. That’s a different matter entirely.
File Under: Website Validation Myths – Validating to W3C Standards – Validation and SEO
Leesha
5 months ago
Ah, another great article, thanks. I was worried when my website turned up with so many errors and I wondered why the hell it mattered when people could navigate around the site and it was user friendly. At least I don’t have to worry anymore. Thanks!