W3C Compliance - Still a ranking factor in 2015?
-
Hi All,
In regards to W3C Compliance, is this still an important ranking factor? Has anyone become compliant and seen a noticeable difference in rankings?
Cheers,
-
Hi Jamie,
I was asked this question recently by a client and my response was that as long as your site can be crawled efficiently and read by Google having a w3c compliant site won't make a difference to rankings. I also pointed out to them that amazon.co.uk - has nearly 400 errors and over 100 warning when you run it through w3c validation tool but they do well in the SERPs!
-
lolol @ Google knows it.
Cheers Matt I get what you mean, I was thinking maybe Google had a green flag system letting it know the site is compliant and giving it a boost. Seems as though it's just guidelines after all.
Have a good one bud.
-
I agree with the other responses with a caveat. W3C compliance is not a ranking factor - except when it's a massive problem. If your site has 50 errors and 10 warnings, not a ranking factor. If you have 600 errors, it actually may affect your rankings - but I don't think it's "compliance" related as much as it is "your site sucks and Google knows it" related.
So a massive amount of errors may actually look like a ranking issue - but it's not a factor, I think.
-
Cheers Robert, I haven't seen any evidence online either but I thought it worth asking.
Have a good one
-
Hi Alick
Thanks for the info and video ill check it out now.
-
Jamie,
Years ago everyone put W3C compliant on every website they seemed to produce. I have never seen it have an impact in rankings and would be interested to see if anyone has any reasonable evidence it did. So, I have to agree with Alick300 and suggest you follow that moz guide as it is a really good basis for SEO and ranking.
Best
Robert
-
Hi Jamie,
Neither it was nor it is an important ranking factor. No I haven't seen any noticeable difference .
List of Important SEO ranking Factors @ http://moz.com/search-ranking-factors
I'm also sharing Matt Cutts video on this @ http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2297152/does-google-penalize-for-invalid-html-matt-cutts-says-no
Thanks
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Ranking for non-existing content which is 301 redirected
Hey there, In the beginning of this year I've made complete site migration from Dutch language to English. All the old Dutch URL's were 301 redirected to the English versions. I naturally lost rankings for all Dutch keywords during the next month. On the website there is no Dutch content anymore. But what happened now is that five months later the website started to rank for the Dutch keywords again. The page snippets in SERP are in English but the URL's shown are in Dutch (ending with .nl) and whenever a user clicks on the snippet he/she gets 301 to the correct English version. Any ideas what could be the reason for re-ranking of non-existing pages which gets 301 in SERP?
Technical SEO | | benesmartin0 -
What is the risk of changing underscores to hyphens in URLs that are ranking
Client wants to change URL structure from underscores to hyphens - reason for doing this is a cosmetic move. What is the risk of changing underscores to hyphens for URLs that that have been around since 2012 and have a lot of keywords ranking in the top 5 in the SERPS? When the created the site - they structured the URL using dashes and underscores. Here is an example of what an URL looks like: /programs-degrees**/clinical-psychology/clinical_phd_kansas****-city****/** *This page ranks for many high volume keywords in the top 5 of the SERPS. I have started to compile a list on why the URL should not be changed... Building trust and authority from scratch 301 redirects do not pass 100% of the link juice 301 redirecting from underscored to hyphenated versions of the same content is an unnecessary risk to some of that link equity. Good chance rankings/traffic will drop because of the URL change
Technical SEO | | The-frank-Agency0 -
Varicose Veins Just Not Ranking
Buonjourno from 6 degrees C damn cold wetherby UK 🙂 This page http://www.varicoseveinsurgery.com/varicose-veins/what-are-they/ has remained stubbornly out of the Google rankings for target term "Varicose Veins" Heres what Ive done so far:
Technical SEO | | Nightwing
1. Made sure the HTML is optimised for the target term
2. Linked from the home page via a scrolling footer Now i'm not looking for a page 1 result but I'm curious to know why the term hasnt even touched the unexplored backwaters of even page 3. p.s If there is a canonical problem please tell me how you diagnosed that 🙂 Thanks in advance, David NB - Just spotted this page can be access via 2 different URLS (Uppercase W being the difference) http://www.varicoseveinsurgery.com/varicose-veins/what-are-they/
http://www.varicoseveinsurgery.com/varicose-veins/What-are-they/0 -
Certain product ranking higher than category (ecommerce)
Hi all, I'm a bit stumped on a SERP. The product is ranking higher than the actual category. Is there anyway to fix this? When I type in "category111", I get the product link instead of a link to the general category. It would be "productname category111" and link would point to product not category. Hope that makes since! TIA
Technical SEO | | William.Lau0 -
Rankings Up and Down Every Single Week
This is so insanely frustrating. One week my client's rankings will be great, working up the second page and on our way to the first. The next week those rankings will drop (according to SEOMoz Rankings) to well below 50. The very next week those rankings will be back up on the second page. It's like a pinball machine with a different rank every week. I'm doing absolutely nothing from week to week, and am not understanding why it's bouncing back and forth so much. I've never seen anything like it, actually. I've never had a client bounce up and down so frequently and in such huge numbers. Any ideas? (http://erasedisease.com) Thanks
Technical SEO | | Linwright0 -
Best Strategy to Rank Wordpress Category
Does anyone some suggestions for best practices when trying to rank categories using Wordpress? Unless you filter it, a category provides a complete list of all posts in that category. I can add a good title and description but am not sure beyond that. Has anyone tried using a sticky post in the category and putting keyword body text in that? Lookin' for ideas.
Technical SEO | | waynekolenchuk1 -
Does redirect of domain alias help rankings?
Yes... It iz I again ;o) Here's one for you savy techies out there: So, I've got a primary domain which is live, optimized and running smooooth. And then I've got a couple of misspelled domains as well (17 to be exact). Will it have an effect if I 301 those misspelled domains? What's Best Practice for several domain aliases? Example.
Technical SEO | | nosuchagency
Primary domain: bryghusprojektet.dk
Alias domain 1: bryghusprojekt.dk (301 redirects to primary domain)
Alias domain 2: bryghus-projekt.dk (Hosting company infopage)
Alias domain 3: bryghus-projekter.dk (Not activated) Regards.1 -
Does a CDN affect search rankings?
I feel kind of stupid asking this, but if i use one it would speed things up quite a bit. It is for a ecommerce website, any guidance on this would be awesome!
Technical SEO | | Hyrule0