HTML Coding Errors - Compliant Source Code
Eliminate HTML Coding Errors
One of the foundations of Ethical Search Engine Optimisation is ensuring that there are no coding errors and that the HTML code that runs behind the page is 100% accurate. That's why, in 99% of cases, Kenkai go through the process of re-writing website pages in CSS Layout, taking JavaScript to external files and changing all depreciated code to W3c compliant CSS.
The steps mentioned above are ways to bring down the size of the HTML source code, reduce the code to content ratio and make the page load faster, all keeping the same look and feel as before the search engine optimisation took place.
There are many more HTML coding errors that someone can make in there source code. We have selected a few HTML coding errors to highlight, that we see on a regular basis.
Doctype Coding Error
The most common HTML coding error that designers make, is to forget to put the doctype at the top of each page. The doctype is the first tag that should be on the page. This tells the browser / spider, what type of document they are viewing. Without the doctype, there is no chance of the page being W3c compliant. There are lots of different types of doctype including:
- HTML Doctype
- XHTM Doctype,
- MathML Doctype
- SVG Doctype
The HTML and XHTML both come in three different variations, strict, loose and frameset. The one we use most often is HTML loose:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
Meta Tags
Most SEOs will have different answers to the question "What meta tags should I use?" Kenkai's answer is simple - keywords, description, content-type and title. Any other meta tags are of no value and simply make the code longer and heavier. The big argument with some people is if the robots meta tag should be used, however, with the robots.txt being used now, the robots tag is pointless code.
Fundamental HTML Code
There are two tags that should be in your code to recognise that it is a page. A head tag and a body tag. The head tags it crucial to hold the meta tags. However the page still renders if you have a head and no body tags, although will not be W3c compliant. HTML Code is a lot like coloured sand and the body tag like a glass vase. Put them both together and you can make art. Without the glass, you have a pile of sand.
Effects of HTML Coding Errors
You may have the best content in your genre, however, if, for example, you don't have a page title and meta tags to back it up, the search engines do not know what the page is about and will give the page no relevance. This is just an example and the HTM coding errors that we have mentioned here are only the tip of the iceberg, but all have an effect of search engine positioning. It is our belief that Google checks for compliant code in their algorythm and that , at present, Yahoo and MSN do not. It is true to say, however, that Yahoo and MSN give an algorythm boost to faster loading pages, so you can see that emininating HTML coding errors is more likely to see help you pages rank well on all engines.
| This table shows the current search engine results page standings for the Source code errors terms. SERPs correct as at 17/05/2009. Page nos in bold indicate number 1 positions |
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| Key Phrase html code errors html source code errors doctype coding errors meta tag coding errors effect of html coding errors | Google Page 1 Page 1 Page 1 Page 1 Page 1 | Yahoo Page 1 Page 1 Page 1Page 1 Page 1 | MSN Page 1Page 1Page 1 Page 1 Page 1 |
