Search Engine Optimisation Services, Expert SEO Solutions- Bluelight SEO » search engines http://www.bluelightseo.co.uk SEO Services UK! Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:26:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 W3C Validation, Is it worth it? http://www.bluelightseo.co.uk/w3c-validator/ http://www.bluelightseo.co.uk/w3c-validator/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:56:43 +0000 BluelightSEO http://southernmedia.no-ip.org/bluelightseo/?p=32

On the whole…Yes
In terms of SEO…No, not really.
Rand Fishkin talks about w3c validation in his interview with Mike McDonald at WebProNews.com, he states-
“In terms of SEO...]]>

img_post-01There is often debate about the use of the w3c validator for SEO. Is it really worth your time and effort to get that green “Passed” sign on the w3c validator?

On the whole…Yes

In terms of SEO…No, not really.

Rand Fishkin talks about w3c validation in his interview with Mike McDonald at WebProNews.com, he states-

“In terms of SEO and search engine ranking, the simple reality is: IT DOESN’T MATTER.  It never has mattered and I daresay it never will matter.  Can it hurt you to have valid code?  Certainly not.”

I would imagine that most of you would agree with this statement, and with good reason. I have worked with many sites that have hundreds of errors, and they still rank just as well as they do with valid code.

Even Google, Bing and Twitter have errors, that must tell you something? If Google are ignoring it, then so should you? Right?

Perhaps not! Although Google isn’t really bothered whether the validator shows up green or red for you, there are often accessibility issues that can mean visitors cannot see vital areas of your site. Although it may appear fine in your browser, it may not appear correctly in another.

Fixing errors won’t necessarily affect your SERP’s but it could ultimately affect your conversions.

There are 2 things I would suggest fixing at the very least, and they are XML Parsing Errors and Missing Alt Descriptions.

The more people that can view your site correctly, the more conversions you will make

W3C Validation, Is it worth it?

There is often debate about the use of the w3c validator for SEO. Is it really worth your time and effort to get that green “Passed” sign on the w3c validator?

On the whole…Yes

In terms of SEO…No, not really.

Rand Fishkin talks about w3c validation in his interview with Mike McDonald at WebProNews.com, he states-

“In terms of SEO and search engine ranking, the simple reality is: IT DOESN’T MATTER.  It never has mattered and I daresay it never will matter.  Can it hurt you to have valid code?  Certainly not.”

I would imagine that most of you would agree with this statement, and with good reason. I have worked with many sites that have hundreds of errors, and they still rank just as well as they do with valid code.

Even Google, Bing and Twitter have errors, that must tell you something? If Google are ignoring it, then so should you? Right?

Perhaps not! Although Google isn’t really bothered whether the validator shows up green or red for you, there are often accessibility issues that can mean visitors cannot see vital areas of your site. Although it may appear fine in your browser, it may not appear correctly in another.

Fixing errors won’t necessarily affect your SERP’s but it could ultimately affect your conversions.

There are 2 things I would suggest fixing at the very least, and they are XML Parsing Errors and Missing Alt Descriptions.

The more people that can view your site correctly, the more conversions you will make

]]> http://www.bluelightseo.co.uk/w3c-validator/feed/ 0 Badda Bing! http://www.bluelightseo.co.uk/badda-bing/ http://www.bluelightseo.co.uk/badda-bing/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:47:09 +0000 BluelightSEO http://southernmedia.no-ip.org/bluelightseo/?p=30 Microsoft released Bing at the end of May and it looks like they are aiming to compete with Google, good luck with that!
Microsoft describe Bing as “a new Decision Engine and consumer brand, providing customers with a first step in moving beyond search to help make faster, more informed decisions”
At...]]>

So Microsoft is trying to compete with Google, and in a big way!

Microsoft released Bing at the end of May and it looks like they are aiming to compete with Google, good luck with that!

Microsoft describe Bing as “a new Decision Engine and consumer brand, providing customers with a first step in moving beyond search to help make faster, more informed decisions”

At first look Bing appears to be very simplistic (not as simplistic as Google, but can you get any simpler than Google?). When you first view the homepage you might think you have stumbled upon a photographers holiday snaps site.

bing-index

Simple and also very appealing pictures.

When I search for the term SEO here are the results I get

bing-results

Similar results to Google (but not exactly the same) and with some related searches that appear to be taken from a list of most searched terms to the left.

The layout itself is pretty much just Google (why try and fix something that isn’t broken, right?)

Moving on to the Local results it appears they have adopted the same approach as Google, it appears that on Bing United Stated they are using yellowpages.com for the sponsored results and then a standard free listing.

bing-local

It’s a shame that the UK version has limited results and not really that relevant either (see below image). I’m not sure if there is any official sponsored results reseller yet, but they do appear to be getting results from Thomson Local.

There is one area on Bing that I really do like and that is the Travel section, it’s pretty much a price compassion site, but it does have the potential to become to only place to search for flights, although its not on the UK version yet, the US version seems pretty well laid out and user friendly.

bing-travel

There is a lot of positives for Bing but is it really that feasible to be taking on the might of Google?

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